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®tber books in tbe same scries aiiD bg 
tbc same autbor. 



THE CENTURY BOOK 

OF THE 

AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 

The Story of a Young People's 
Pilgrimage to Historic Battlefields. 

Issued under the auspices 

of the Empire State Society of 

the Sons of the American Revolution. 

With introduction by 

Hon. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, 

President of the Society. 



JL THE CENTURY BOOK JL 

T OF FAMOUS AMERICANS T 

ill The Story of a Young People's W 

UH Pilgrimage to Historic Homes. ||i« 

A Issued under the auspices JL 

^ of the National Society of the IHi 

MM Daughters of the American Revolution. Jm 

■tc With introduction by ^^ 

m Mrs. ad LAI E. STEVExNTSON, |||| 

i_ President-General of the Society. .*. 



Uniform with this hook in size and style. Eaeh mm 
"(^ eontainius; Jjo pages and nearly as many illus- DIP 
mL (rations. Priee of each, $i.^o. JL 



* li*ffl*S*t3!*lf I 







BARON STEUBE 



GOV. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. SECRETARY SAMUEL A. OTIS. ROGER SHERMAN. GOV. GEORGE CLINTON. 

CHANCELLOR ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. GEORGE WASHINGTON. JOHN ADAMS. GEN'L HENRY KNOX. 



WASHINGTON TAKING THE OATH AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 

APRIL 30, 1789, ON THE SITE OF THE PRESENT TREASURY BUILDING, WALL STREET, NEW YORK CITY. 



ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE SOCIETY OF THE 
SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



THE CENTURY BOOK 
FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 



SHOWING HOW A PARTY OF BOYS AND GIRLS 

WHO KNEW HOW TO USE THEIR EYES AND EARS 

FOUND OUT ALL ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT OF 

THE UNITED STATES 



BY 



ELBRIDGE Sf BROOKS 

AUTHOR OF "HISTORIC BOYS," "HISTORIC GIRLS," 
"THE STORY OF THE UNITED STATES," ETC., ETC. 



WITH PICTURES OF SOME OF THE PEOPLE AND PLACES 
THAT HAVE MADE AMERICA FAMOUS 




THE CENTURY CO., NEW YORK 



<^ 



Copyright, 1894, by The Century Co. 



Thc DeVinne PREes. 




INTRODUCTION 

Office of the President-General, National 
Society, Sons of the American Revolution. 

15 Broad street, New York, July, 1894. 

|HE Society of the Sons of the American Revolution is an association 
composed of lineal descendants of ancestors who assisted in achiev- 
ing the nation's independence, either in the civil or military service, 
during the War of the American Revolution. It aims to encourage 
the study of Revolutionary history, to erect suitable memorials, to 
celebrate the anniversaries of prominent events of the war, and to 
inspire among its members and the community at large a more profound reverence for 
the principles of the government founded by our forefathers. In its endeavor to in- 
culcate in the minds of the youth of the land a more exalted patriotism, it has sup- 
plied schools with American flags, organized patriotic celebrations, and prepared 
bronze medals of appropriate design to be given to the pupils as prizes for compo- 
sitions upon Revolutionary history. It has also offered to our principal colleges 
gold and silver medals to be awarded annually to the writers of the best essays upon 
the principles fought for in the American Revolution and has distributed many patri- 
otic addresses. It believes, with Bolingbroke, that " the love of country is a lesson of 
reason, not an institution of nature," and that it can be largely stimulated by proper 
teachings. 

Much regret has been felt from the fact that there has been no book published here- 
tofore in which the principles contended for in the American Revolution, and a de- 
scription of the institutions of the Government, have been set forth in a sufficiently 
interesting form to make the study attractive to children. The society recently 
suggested to The Century Company the advisabihty of preparing such a book. This 
work has now been produced, and it is presented in a form which commends itself 
highly to the society, and has received its cordial approval. 

It is proper to state that the society has no business relations with the publishers 
of the book, and no pecuniary interest whatever in the publication. The services ren- 
dered by the officers of the society in furthering the project have been entirely 
gratuitous. 

Horace Porter, 

President- General. 



THE author wishes to make due 
and grateful acknowledgment for 
information, suggestion, and aid in the 
preparation of this book, to Ex-Gover- 
nor Long of Massachusetts, Ex-Con- 
gressman Bowman of Boston, Mr. S. 
M. Hamilton of the State Department, 
Washington, and other interested friends. 




TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PAGE 

I The Government i 

II The Constitution 17 

III The President 33 

IV The Cabinet 51 

V The Senate 63 

VI The House of Representatives , _ . . TJ 

VII The Supreme Court 91 

VIII The State, War, and Navy Departments 103 

IX The Treasury and the Post Office 121 

X The Departments of Justice, of the Interior, and of 

Agriculture 143 

XI The- Office-holder 161 

XII The Flag of the Union 177 

XIII The State, the City, and the Town 191 

XIV The Citizen 203 

XV The National Capital 219 

XVI America's Marvels and America's Station 235 




Trumbull's picture, "the signing of the declaration of independence. 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




CHAPTER I 

THE GOVERNMENT 

Jack and Marian wish to see the world — Mr. Dunlap's views — Uncle Toms 
dissections — A personally coriducted party — The visit to Washington — A 
talk about the United States : What they are and ho'w they came to be. 

WHEN Jack and Marian Dunlap and their 
cousin Albert Upham returned from the 
World's Fair at Chicago, they were full of the 
desire to keep on sight-seeing. They had 
been amazed at the bigness and industry of 
the world. They had seen things from every 
country under the sun. Now they were anxious 
to see, for themselves, the countries and cities 
from which all these strange and beautiful and wonderful things had come. 
" Father," said Jack to Mr. Dunlap, as they sat one evening in their 
New York home talking things over, "won't you let us go to Europe with 
you when you make your next trip ? " 

" Oh, yes ! That would be perfectly splendid ; would n't it, Bert? " cried 
Marian. "Can't we go, Papa?" 

But Mr. Dunlap had peculiar views. 

" See Europe and welcome, my dears," he replied. " I shall be de- 
lighted to take you — when the time comes. It has not come yet, though; 
you must know your own country first. Every time I go abroad I meet so 
many un-American Americans that I am determined to have my young 
folks decently furnished with a stock of home information. Why, on my 
last trip to Europe, I met a Bostonian who had never climbed Bunker Hill 
Monument, a New-Yorker who had never seen Niagara Falls, and a Phila- 
delphian who could not tell the difference between Carpenters' Hall and 
Independence Hall. What is the difference?" 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



Jack looked at Bert, and Bert looked at Marian. Then Jack, who knew 
his father's love for springing "catches" on them, jumped at a brilliant 
conclusion. 




A PILGRIM FATHER IN HIS ARMOR. 



"There is n't any difference," he said. 

But that time Jack made a mistake. His father looked at him queerly. 

" And you talk of seeing Europe ! " he exclaimed. 

Then he went on without offering any explanation — 

" Yes ; and once I met in Europe an American congressman who could 
not quote from the Constitution of the United States without looking at it, 
an American ex-governor who thought that a Pilgrim was the same as a 
Puritan, and an American doctor of divinity who did not remember how the 
Declaration of Independence begins." 



THE GOVERNMENT 3 

" I can beat him there ! " cried Bert ; " it begins : ' When in the course 
of human events — ' what human events, Uncle Edward?" 

"Ah! there you are! " Mr. Dunlap exclaimed; "just what I intend you 
shall find out for yourselves ! It is human events that have made America. 
I am going to send you on a tour of investigation. Then, when you know 
the hows and whys of America, we will talk of seeing Europe," 

The boys had no objection. What boys ever did object to sight- 
seeing — even when it had "a moral tagged on," as Jack said? As for 
Marian, she, of course, was delighted. And she said so. 

" How I wish Christine could go too," she said. 

Now, Christine Bacon was Marian's "dearest friend" — all girls have 
such an inseparable. 

Mr. Dunlap sat silent awhile. Then he said, " Perhaps the plan 
could be arranged. I '11 talk with Uncle Tom." 

"Uncle Tom " was Mr. Dunlap's brother. He knew everything, so 
the children believed. He had been everywhere. He was thirty-five ; 
"as lovely as he was learned," Marian declared; a boy with the boys and 
girls he delighted to talk with; just the one to "run things," Jack 
and Bert asserted. And just now Uncle Tom had plenty of time at his 
disposal. 

Mr. Dunlap and his brother talked it over. When they had agreed 
on the preliminaries, the children were admitted to the conference. 

"The secret session is over," said Uncle Tom, opening the door of Mr. 
Dunlap's library. "The public will now be admitted." 

" What 's a secret session. Uncle Tom ? " Marian asked. 

" A secret session ? " he answered. " Well, I '11 tell you — in Washington." 

"In Washington!" exclaimed Jack. "Oh, then we can go?" 

" It has been so determined in secret session," said Uncle Tom. 

A triple cheer went up from the "public." Then Marian pleaded for 
Christine, and the boys wished that Christine's New England cousin, 
Roger Densmore, might go. They had spent several summers with him 
on the Maine coast, and voted him to be just the best fellow in the world 
for such a trip. 

" He 's a perfect little gentleman," declared Marian ; " and just as bright 
as he is good." 

"The more the merrier," said Uncle Tom; "I 'm agreeable if your 
father is." 

"If their fathers and mothers are willing, I am," Mr. Dunlap said. 

" It makes me think of the trip to Hampton Beach that Shillaber 
wrote about," laughed Uncle Tom. "Don't you remember, Jack? — 



4 T*HE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

'Then Johnny and Mally 
And Bobby and Sally 

And little Joe Alley, less stocking or shoe, 
Set up such a clatter 
That, to settle the matter, 

The kind Mr. Sled says they may go too.' " 

" Well, if Roger is ' little Joe Alley,' " said Marian, " he won't go without 
stocking- or shoe. He 's a regular dude when it comes to clothes." 

"He 's no dude!" Jack declared, stoutly. "He 's as good as they 
make 'em." 

At last everything was settled. All the parents were willing. And so it 
came to pass that on a bright spring morning Uncle Tom and his "person- 
ally conducted party of juvenile tourists," as he called his charges, peered 
from their train-window, anxious for the first glimpse at "their Mecca"; 
and, as the midnight- express from New York puffed across the eastern 
branch of the Potomac, they caught the glorious gleam of the splendid 
dome of the Capitol, looming up in all its majesty and whiteness. 

For Mr. Dunlap had said to his brother: "Take them, first, to the cen- 
ter of things, Tom. Go to Washington. Let them see why our government 
was made, how it was made, and how it is run." 

So to Washington the "tourists" went; a delighted, happy, and most 
congenial party of three boys and two girls, — all wide-awake, all anxious 
to see and to hear whatever there was to be seen and heard, and all of them 
as full of fun, but as easily kept "in the traces," as any five young folks just 
in their teens that could be picked out in New York or Boston. 

Marian and Christine sfave a o-irlish shriek of satisfaction as Uncle 
Tom pointed out the crown of the capital. 

" How beautiful it is ! " said Bert, his eyes fastened on that superb 
dome. "You can see it above everything. Why, it makes one proud to 
be an American." 

"That 's the way it ought to affect you, Bert," said Uncle Tom. "If 
you have all of you come to Washington in that spirit, you will see things 
to the best advantage. Nothing is perfect — not even patriotism. But I 
think we do the best we can with our opportunities, and, while I don't like 
to hear Americans boasting, I do like them to look with pride upon their 
possessions and feel a thrill of pleasure over their institutions. The Am- 
erican who does n't like America and is forever comparing it slightingly 
with other countries ought to be banished to an island in the sea and made 
to read Dr. Hale's 'Man Without a Country' until that inspiring story 
teaches him to appreciate what it is to have a country." 



THE GOVERNMENT 



"That 's all fine talk," Jack said, as the travelers left their train and 
passed through the station with a glance of interest and pity at " Garfield's 
star," of which they all knew the tragic story, — "that 's all fine talk. Uncle 
Tom ; but — what is it to have a country ? It is n't for us to pick and 





THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL — AS SEEN FROM PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 



choose» We 're born here, you know, and that settles it. Who makes a 
country ? " 

" There you are, at the very beginning of things ! " Uncle Tom exclaimed, 
as they took a street-car to their hotel. "And here, in Washington, is the 
very place to commence our investigations, as your father wisely said. Let 's 
talk it over while we are getting breakfast and resting. Then, after you all 
know how the American government came to be, we can sally out and see 
how it is run. 

" Do you know, boys and girls," said Uncle Tom, thoughtfully, between 



6 T^HE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

a sip of coffee and a bite of steak, " that splendid dome yonder was built here 
because a certain German boy had a grandmother ? " 




"ladies and gentlemen discussed the SiiL.llUj. 



"Uncle Tom ! that coffee has gone to your head," said Marian. 

"Many years ago," Mr. Dunlap continued, without noticing the puzzled 
expression of his five young friends, "there lived on a pleasant island in the 
sea a king who had a grandmother." 



THE GOVERNMENT 7 

" Oh, here, Uncle Tom ! " exclaimed Jack, laying down his knife and 
fork ; " what are you giving us ? We are not children, and you are not — 
Scheherazade nor the Brothers Grimm." 

"I am telling this story. Master Jack," said Uncle Tom. "It 's not a 
fairy tale ; it is a fact. There was just such a king, and he did have a 
grandmother." 

" Let up, Jack," Roger protested. " He knows what he 's about." 

"Now, this grandmother," continued Uncle Tom, "was second cousin to 
a princess whose father had run away from his throne and whose sister had 
married the man who made him run away. These two became king and 
queen of the island. And, when they died, the sister who was a princess be- 
came queen. Then she died; and the people of the island would not have 
the son of the king who ran away for their king, but declared that the crown 
belonged to the princess's second cousin — the grandmother — of my story, 
and who did not live on the island at all. But before she could take the 
crown she died ; and her son, who was a little one-for-a-cent sort of prince, 
went over and became king of the island. When he died, his son and then 
his grandson succeeded as kings of the island. The last of these three 
'foreigners' was the king who had the grandmother — only she was a great- 
grandmother, and died long before the king of my story was born. But this 
is how he came to be king of the island." 

" For further particulars see Mr. Macaulay and Thackeray's ' Four 
Georges,'" said Bert, with just a little of the superior air of the boy who 
knows it all. 

"Good for you, Bert," said Uncle Tom; "I see you read my historical 
puzzle correctly. Yes ; the king with the grandmother was George the 
Third, king of England. And by such means did this German boy come to 
be an English king. Of course, too, you know that It was in the reign of 
George the Third that these United States were born." 

" Out of the colonies," said Roger, "that James who ran away, and Wil- 
liam and Mary who came from Holland, and Anne the princess, and the first 
two Georges from Germany,, had all the say about when their English sub- 
jects came over here to settle." 

"Just so," assented Uncle Tom. "But those colonies had their begin- 
nings even further back. When Columbus the admiral came sailing over 
the sea, his little cockle-shells of ships brought in them the seeds of a great 
idea. Those seeds were the desire for liberty and the dream of self-govern- 
ment. They had been trying to sprout in Europe ever since the days we 
call ' the dark agfes.' " 

" But Columbus and his fellows were Spaniards," said Jack. 



8 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

" They were Spaniards, and they settled far to the south," said Uncle 
Tom; "but, don't you see, it was Columbus who opened a new chapter in 
the world's history. He gave to the world the knowledge of a new land, in 
which the men and women who followed in his wake saw the very oppor- 
tunity the world had been waiting for so long — the possibility of making 
their dreams of liberty and progress come true." 

" But you can't say that those first settlers came here with any such 
great ideas, can you. Uncle Tom?" Jack objected. "I always thought 
they came just for adventure or for the sake of making money." 

" That 's so," Uncle Tom admitted ; " but, don't you see, as they began to 
settle down here and to make homes for their wives and children, hewinof 
down the great forests and building their rough little houses of logs or 
stone, the colonists became neighbors, then the neighbors became friends, 
the friends became fellow-countrymen." 

" Well ? " said Marian. The boys and girls were beginning to get 
interested in this line of argument. 

"Well," said Uncle Tom, "still more ships came. New families sought 
homes ; and all along a narrow strip of sea-shore, stretching from Maine to 
Georgia, little knots of settlements sprang up, in which boys and girls grew 
to be men and women, loving the land in which they had their homes. But, 
because they were so far away from the kings and courts to which they 
yielded respect as their rulers, they came gradually to think and act for 
themselves ; they began to wonder why, if they were able to live and labor 
here, they really ought to be subjects of, or pay tribute to, those crowned 
masters across three thousand miles of sea, who did not seem to care espe- 
cially for them or take any interest in them, beyond the money they could 
collect from them, or the trade they could control for English markets and 
English manufactures." 

"But the colonists were making money too, were they not?" queried 
Roger. 

"The)' were in a certain way," replied Uncle Tom, "but not in the right 
way. No man who minds his own business likes to have any one come in 
and tell him just how to mind it. England drained off in tribute and mo- 
nopolies a certain portion of the colonists' money without so much as say- 
ing ' by your leave.' The Americans did not consider this fair. They began 
to think ; and when people begin to think, they soon begin to act. This ac- 
tion, in America, came over a question of taxation. People who pay taxes 
generally feel privileged to grumble over the way the tax money is spent, 
especially if they think the money could be spent to better advantage for the 
benefit of those who pay the taxes." 




■iiiifii, //Mi^lllilllll^^^^ \ ^^wvvMwti*^-;:.' ^ >^>^\n^\s 



_-%s&.v^."^ 



A COLONIAL GOVERNOR. 



lO 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



" Right you are," said Jack. " I 've heard my father get as mad as 
a hornet over what he calls ' the injustice to the taxpayers.' " 

"Well," said Uncle Tom, nodding assent to Jack's interjection, "the col- 
onists soon became hornets in the same way. The people in America who 




' NU lAXAlIOiN WllllOUT Klil'KliSliN I Al IO;N 



paid taxes to England began to talk things over. Ladies and gentlemen dis- 
cussed the situation as they took their summer airings ' on the Mall ' or met 
at 'rout' or in church. Farmers talked it over at seed-planting and har- 
vest, or at the assemblies of neighbors in the tavern or the town-meeting. 
They all said that they did not so much object to paying the taxes if they 
could only have ' the say ' as to how those taxes should be used. ' Give 
us a voice in this matter!' they demanded. But the people of England ob- 
jected to this. The king of England sent over to act as ' governors ' of 
the colonies men who were mostly good-for-nothings — broken-down noble- 
men anxious to make money, or favorites of the king whom he wished to do 
something for. So the people, even when they did try to have something 
to say for themselves and attempted to make laws for their own protection, 
found the king or his 'governors' ready to step in and say, 'You cannot do 
this,' or ' You shall not do that,' until finally they grew tired of it all ; they 
became more and more outspoken in talk and action, and finally raised the 
cry : ' No taxation without representation ! ' " 



THE GOVERNMENT 



II 



.r^^ 




1 ft'. ' 







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f-, 






^ ?%-.. 



-#=«^-? '•^-'~-&^^'&^ ^ 



THE LAST OF THE KING WHO HAD A GRANDMOTHER. 
(pulling down THE STATUE OF GEORGE IIL, NEW YORK, JULY 9, 1776.) 

" Good for them ! " exclaimed Jack. 

"Out of this demand," continued Uncle Tom, "came what is called 
the American Revolution. And out of the American Revolution came, as 
you know, after seven years of war, the United States of America.'' 

" Hooray ! let the eagle scream ! " murmured enthusiastic Jack, m an 
audible "stage-whisper." 

" Of that American Revolution," said Uncle Tom, warming to his sub- 
ject, "what boy or girl in America is not proud to-day?" 

" Hear, hear ! " said the boys and girls. 

" Every one of them knows its story." 



12 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

" We do, we do ! " from his auditors. 

" It is," Uncle Tom went on, "a record of the protests of patriots, the 
struesfles of armies, the doinc["s of heroes. The thirteen colonies of the 
English crown, fringing- the western shores of the north Atlantic, deemed 
themselves ill-treated by the king and Parliament of England. They 
banded together for appeal, and for resistance. They proclaimed themselves 
forever free from English authority, and then combined for mutual protec- 
tion and defense under the title of the United States of America." 

"I tell you, that was a pretty plucky thing to do, though, was n't it?" 
Bert exclaimed; and Christine asked, " How many people were there in the 
colonies then, Mr. Dunlap ? " 

" Oh, between two and three millions," said Uncle Tom; "less than the 
combined inhabitants of New York and Brooklyn to-day. And of these, 
you must remember, very many were timid — afraid to speak out ; loyal to 
the kiniT, riij'ht or wronij ; anxious to leave well-enoui^h alone. So the 
people who protested and acted were but a part of the 'provincials," as 
their English rulers called them. Well, the Revolution ended in success. 
The Americans had gained what they fought for. They were free. What 
would they do now ? the world began to wonder." 

"Do?" cried Jack. "Why, set up shop for themselves and go ahead." 

" Not so easy, that," Uncle Tom returned. " You can't keep shop suc- 
cessfully unless the partners all pull together ; and this was not yet certain. 
There had, of course, been a sort of acting together during the war. The 
colonies had placed the direction of their common interests in the hands of 
a body of men known as the Continental Congress. Congress means — " 

" Come, Bert, air your Latin," Jack interjected, as Uncle Tom paused. 

" Co7i and gi^adior, to walk or step together," Bert replied promptly. 

" Exactly, Congress is a coming or meeting together. The Continental 
Congress was a meeting together for deliberation and action of a certain 
number of delegates representing the thirteen small and sparsely settled 
colonies along the Atlantic border, — the 'continent' it was proudly called. 
This Continental Congress (sometimes and perhaps more accurately called 
the Congress of the Confederation) announced in its Articles of Confeder- 
ation, proclaimed in 1777, that the thirteen united colonies, thereafter to be 
known as the United States of America, entered, by those articles, into a 
league of friendship with one another for defense, liberty, and welfare." 

"That was n't much of a governiuent then, was it?" said Roger. 

" Government? No," Uncle Tom exclaimed in answer. " It was just as 
they called it: 'a league of friendship,' — a lot of boys catching hold of hands 
and standing shoulder to shoulder to ward off a 'rush.' The Continental 



THE GOVERNMENT 



Congress was all right for a time of war ; but it was not a government. It 
could neither raise money by taxes, nor recruit an army for defense. The 
Continental Congress had, therefore, no real authority ; it could only recom- 
mend things to the three million of people it represented — and then stop. 




A PROTEST OF PATRIOTS — THE SONS OF LIBERTY SEIZING BRITISH ARMS. 



It could do nothing. So, you see, it had very little reason for existence 
after the liberty, to secure which it had been created, was attained." 

"That 's news to me," said Marian. " I always thought the Continental 
Congress did it all — from Lexington to Lincoln." 

"So did I," echoed Roger. 

"Live and learn, girls and boys," laughed Uncle Tom. "Well; the war 
was over. The thirteen colonies — States, as they called themselves — were 
free. But liberty without union is strength without wisdom. It is like boys 



14 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



off for a holiday, anxious to play base-ball, but not able to decide how to 
make up the nines." 

•* We 've been there, have n't we, fellows *" cried Jack : *• and of all exas- 
perating things — I" here Jack stopped, at a loss for words to express the 
exasperation. 

*• Ouarrelinir arose beti;\-een sections ; the larger States put annoying re- 




TBE CRAIRM.VC OF TBB CJUWVUAIIOX. 
(THE aUSBXT STTAXT POmtATT OF CXO«GE WASHDSGTOJL > 



strictions upon the commerce of their smaller neighbors : resistance to neces- 
sar>' measures — by men who thought that to be free meant free to do as 
they pleased — threatened bloodshed ; and first one and then another State 
announced its intention to secede, or withdraw from the Confederation." 
*' Well, that was pleasant, was n't it ? " said Bert 



THE GO\'ER2iMENT 1 5 

''Came near upsetting their whole kettle of fish, did n't they?" com- 
mented Roger. 

'• It was indeed a time of severe trial for the friends of union and of 
liberty," said Uncle Tom. " It was a time of which more than one historian 
has said that ' it was fuller of hazard than the period of war.' " 

" How did they settle it?" asked Marian. 

" The men of America had struggled hard for freedom,"' said Uncle Tom, 
"and what men have sternly striven for they will not lose if they can help 
it. The wisest heads in America saw that their acting Congress with its- 
Articles of Confederation was no longer of ser\-ice. They saw that some- 
thing must be done, and at once. They believed in taking counsel together ; 
and so it came to pass that on the fourteenth of May, 1 787, there gathered, in. 
the cit}- of Philadelphia, delegates from the thirteen States. They were able, 
clear-headed, patriotic, and moderate men. Thej^ were men who had their 
opinions, but were willing to compromise. In other words, they were men 
who knew that, sometimes, it is stupid to be stubborn, wise to be yielding — "" 

•'Albert, m^- son, do you hear that?' Jack interrupted; "take a lesson, I 
beg of you, from that noble forr\--five." 

" \\ ell. I like that I '" cried Bert, so surprised that his glasses nearly fell 
oil. " Of all the fellows who need it most, you 're — " 

"Order, order I gentlemen,' said Uncle Tom. "You are not speaking" 
to the question. Personalities are barred out. As I was saying, the men 
ot this Constitutional Convention of 1787 v\-ere men with purpose, and men 
with patriotism. They were known as the Federal Convention, and over 
their deliberations George Washington presided as chairman." 

•' One, two, three ! " cried Jack, the frrepressible. " Ffrst in war, first in. 
peace — " 

" Come, come, Jack, do behave yourself" cautioned Mr. Dunlap, laugh- 
ing in spite of himself, for he knew Jack's exuberant spirits. " Xo better 
choice could have been made for a presiding officer. George Washington 
was the one man. above all others, whom the people trusted. He was the 
nation's hero — its protector, its defender, its counselor in peace, its leader 
in war. It he is chairman of the Convention,' people said, ' ever^-thing will 
be all right' " 

"Just think ot going in to a meeting and seeing Washington preside ! "^ 
said Roger: " I 'm afraid the Philadelphia boys, in 1787, did n't appreciate 
their opportunities." 

" Even if they had known as much as 3-ou do now. Roger. " Uncle Tom 
remarked, "they could not have gone. The Convention sat with closed 
doors. Eversthine was done in secret. But it would have been worth. 



i6 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



'hooking in' to see; for, besides Washington, there sat in that Conven- 
tion other famous Americans — Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton, 
and James Madison, and Robert Morris. Indeed, the Federal Convention of 
1787 has been called one of the most remarkable deliberative bodies known 
to history. It met to take counsel as to the best means of making per- 
manent the Union which resistance to oppression had created, and to draw 
up, for the three millions of freemen it represented, an agreement under 
which they could live together in peace and unity. This agreement we 
know to-day as the Constitution of the United States — the greatest of the 
state papers of the world, ' the tide deed of American liberty,' as it has been 
called." 

"And that to-day is the law of the land, is it?" said Bert. "Is n't it 
wonderful how things grow out of almost nothing?" 

Whereupon Jack, who loved to quote poetry, gave a text from Tennyson : 

" Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns." 

"That 's so, Jack," said Uncle Tom, rising. "And now, as the waiter 
evidently thinks we 're going to hold his table until dinner-time, and as our 
next step is to see and examine into the Constitution, let us go over to the 
State Department and hunt up the precious original itself." 

" Nothing like being right in the start, is there, Roger, my boy," said 
Jack, nudging his friend from Boston. " I call this a bang-up object- 
lesson in government, don't you ? " 

And away they all hied to the State Department, to see the Constitution 
itself 




WHERE THE CONVENTION MET. — PHILADELPHIA IN THE EARLY DAYS. 



CHAPTER II 



THE CONSTITUTION 




Uncle Toms "-tourists'' see the preciotis document — How it was made and 
adopted — They learn how it is the '■^corner-stone'' of the Government. 



AS the personally conducted "investigators" walked 
jLjl along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the splendid 
building in which they expected to find the original 
document of the Constitution of the United States of 
America, Jack, who, in spite of his heedlessness did really 
give thought to matters that interested him, 
said : 

"Well, say, Uncle Tom, I don't see how 
these forty-five men managed to agree on 
such a great and wonderful document as you 
say the Constitution is. What if they were 
not stubborn ; suppose they were ready to 
I don't see how they could get on without some squabbling." 




A LAMP THAT ONCE BELONGED TO GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



compromise 



"Good gracious. Jack! they did n't," Uncle Tom exclaimed. "I would 
not have you for a moment imagine that so important a paper as this Con- 
stitution was made up without dispute or accepted without opposition. And 
you must n't think either that 'the fathers who framed it,' as we now speak 
of them, were something more than mortal, like the fabled demigods of 
Greece. They were simply wise and zealous men, influenced only by love of 
country and a desire to secure the greatest good for the people they repre- 
sented. They tried to argue and arrange things calmly. But before they 
got through their work two of the members 'got mad,' as you girls say, and 
withdrew from the Convention — they were from New York, I am sorry to 
say ; four others — one from Maryland, two from Virginia, and one from 
Massachusetts — refused to sign the Constitution after it was drawn up. 
For days and months — four months, in fact — the members of the Conven- 



i8 



T«E STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



tion discussed, objected, modified, amended, and resolved. With certain con- 
cessions here and certain )'ieldinos there, with hope that the people would 
accept, and fear lest they should reject the seven divisions or articles of the 
paper as put together, the Constitution was finally agreed to ; and, on Sep- 




PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, WASHINGTON. — ON THE WAV TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT. 



tember 17, 1787, the Convention dissolved, presenting the result of its de- 
liberations to the several States for adoption or rejection, as the people 
should decide." 

"The States did adopt it, of course," said Bert. 

"Of course they did," said Jack, turning to his cousin a little impatiently; 
" how else could we have the Constitution ? " 

"They did adopt it," said Uncle Tom, "but not immediately, and it 
must be confessed things looked a little shaky sometimes. Discussion ran 
high in all the States; but, within a year, eleven of the thirteen States had 
'ratified' or accepted the document, and, on September 13, 1788, the Con- 
stitution of the United States of America was declared to be the law of 
the land." 

" So you see, my young and beloved hearers," said Uncle Tom, as they 
all stood at the entrance of the great building known as the State Depart- 
ment, " the Constitution of the United States was, really, the work of the 
people of the United States, who, through their chosen representatives, 
sought thus to found, upon the ruins of an overthrown tyranny and a dis- 



THE CONSTITUTION 



19 



carded confederation, an enduring government that should be — as the 
greatest of modern Americans expressed it seventy-five years later — 'of 
the people, by the people, for the people.'" 

"That was Lincoln, in his second inaugural address, was it not?" asked 
Roger. 

"Lincoln," Uncle Tom replied; "but in his Gettysburg speech — not 
his inaugural. It was one of the greatest, though one of the shortest 
speeches ever made by man. And now for the Constitution." 

Mr. Dunlap and his young people passed along the corridor and, taking 
the elevator, rose to the third floor of the big building. Here they found 
the pleasant room known as the Library of the State Department. Uncle 
Tom made known his wishes, and a courteous official, taking the party in 




THE BUILDING OF THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS. 



charge, led them across the hallway to one of the smaller rooms in the sec- 
tion devoted to the Bureau of Indexes and Archives. Their conductor un- 
locked the doors of a long wooden cabinet and disclosed therein, neatly 
framed in five distinct sections, — beginning with the "preamble" and ending 
with the signatures, — the precious paper now famous throughout the world 
as the Constitution of the United States. 



20 THE STORV OF THE C.OVERXMENT 

The boys and girls could not restrain a feeling of pride and satisfaction 
at sight of this immortal document. Even Jack's irrepressible spirits were 
visibly restrained as he looked upon it 

'' It is worth coming all the way to Washington to see just that, is n't 
it?" he said. "Who wrote it?" he asked. 

" If )ou mean the actual handwriting," replied the interested custodian, 
" I really cannot say. I have thought that possibly it might have been writ- 
ten — engrossed, we say — by William Jackson, who, as you see by his sig- 
nature, was Secretary of the Convention and 'attested' the document." 

"But see, sir." said critical Bert, "the body of the document is much 
better written than this signature of Jackson's." 

" Yes, I do see," the custodian replied. "I don't know that the question of 
the actual penman ever occurred to us here. Perhaps the document may 
have been enerossed bv one of the assistant secretaries or some other now 
forgotten penman. For that 's the way it is, even to-day, boys and girls. 
Here in the State Department we unknown fellows take time and care to write 
out some important paper and make a beautiful piece of penmanship of it. 
Then some famous secretary, who probably writes that horrible hand which 
they say is a sign of genius, just scrawls his name at the end of the paper and 
posterity gives him all the praise, while we, as you boys say, are ' not in it.' " 

" But the Constitution is n't at all like old-fashioned penmanship," said 
Roger. " It is beautifully written. And how well it has kept ! " 

" Yes ; it has kept better than other famous papers we have charge of 
here," the custodian replied. " Folks think we keep the original Declara- 
tion of Independence over there in the library. We do, but no one can 
see it. The one shown is a facsimile." 

" Dear me, though; can't we ever see the Declaration?" Marian asked. 

"I am afraid not," replied the custodian. "It used to be publicly dis- 
played, and was. in fact, carelessly kept. As a result the ink faded in the 
strong light, and at last, to save it, the Declaration was withdrawn forever 
from view. It is now screwed down flat between two heavy boards and is 
locked inside that big steel safe you saw near the library door. No one 
can see it now. With it, too, is the original of Washington's commission as 
commander-in-chief of the arniy, which has also, to save it, been in the 
same way shut forever from pul)lic view." 

" Is n't that too bad though ? " said Christine. " But never mind, we can 
say we saw its — what is it? — its sarcophagus." 

" But about the Constitution." asked Bert, returning to the topic in 
hand. "We know who did or who did n't write it. Now, who made it up? 
Who composed it ? ' 




-■■^^'-~ 




y 



m4^ 



22 



TrfE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Well, that, too, is difficult to say," the custodian replied. "Opinions, 
I believe, differ as to the honor ; it lies between Alexander Hamilton and 
James Madison." 

"I am inclined to call it a joint composition," said Uncle Tom. "The 
Constitution was the result of the deliberation and suggestion of the forty- 
five men who composed the Federal Convention — " 

" Minus those who ' got mad ' and ran off, and those who refused to sign, 
I suppose," Jack put in. 

"Well, perhaps," said Uncle Tom; "although we must admit their share 
in the deliberations and discussions." 

"Especially the discussions," said Roger. 

" I should, I think, agree in this question of responsibility, with Mr. Cur- 
tis," continued Uncle Tom. " He was a wise old ' dry-as-dust ' who wrote a 
history of the Constitution, and he declares it to be ' the result of the mutual 
concession to each other for the sake of that union which all knew to be their 
only hope of strength and safety.' I should say, in reply to Christine's ques- 
tion, that they all composed it." 

"As to the actual fact," said the custodian, "I believe it is stated that 
when the Convention had formulated a system — made up of provisos, sug- 
gestions, clauses, and memoranda — the matter was given into the hands of a 
committee of detail, to be put into form and shape, so that the Convention could 

act upon it. That committee consisted of Rut- 
ledge of South Carolina, Randolph of Virginia — " 
" Who — excuse me, sir — refused to sign," said 
Mr. Dunlap, " because he objected to the power 
the Constitution gave to the President and the 
Senate, and to the indefinite boundaries between 
national and State authority." 

" I believe that was so, sir," the custodian as- 
sented. " Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham of Massa- 
chusetts, Ellsworth of Connecticut, and Wilson of 
Pennsylvania. This committee presented a con- 
stitution of twenty-three articles. This document 
— the original one — has seven articles. So you can see how much pruning 
and condensing the Convention did." 

" I suppose we must, however, give most of the credit for the real fram- 
ing of the Constitution," said Mr. Dunlap, "to James Madison of Virginia, 
who has been called 'the father of the Constitution,' because he was the au- 
thor of the resolution that led to the invitation for the Convention that com- 
piled and adopted the Constitution — " 

"The Madison who was President?" broke in Marian. 




OLIVER ELLSWOKTH, OF CONNKCTICUT. 





'.=^^>^4 




Secretary. 




Delaivare : 



Maryland : 









Virginia. 



(/ at € 

North Carolina: 




^A^^^ 



^ 



^^^^-^0^lS^a.r^-^H^r^ 



New Ha^npshire : 

Massachusetts ■' 
Connecticut : 

New - York : 
New Jersey : 

Pennsylvania : 



South Carolina : 



Georgia : 










FACSIMILE OF THE SIGNATURES TO THE CONSTITUTION. 



24 



TiiE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



"Yes — fourth President of the United States; he succeeded Jefferson," 
Uncle Tom repHed. " I say we must give most of the credit to him and to 
Alexander Hamilton of New York." 

"There was a man, boys!" the custodian exclaimed. "I always say 
that the story of Alexander Hamilton is one to make young men proud of 
their youth. Think of it : an orator and patriot at seventeen, a hero before 
his twenty-first birthday, a statesman at twenty-three ! I believe he was one 
of the first Americans to suggest the government we now enjoy. Why, 
when he was but twenty-three he wrote a remarkable letter to a friend who 
was in the Continental Congress — that was in 1780 — in which he outlined 
many of the provisions that, later, found place in this very document you 
are looking upon." 



THE CONSTITUTION 25 

"The gentleman is right, boys," Uncle Tom said. "Why, this young 
Hamilton — he was almost the youngest member of that grave Federal 
Convention — was so clearly its motive spirit that the famous historian 
Guizot declared there was not, in the Constitution of the United States, 'an 
element of order, of force, of duration, which Hamilton did not powerfully 
contribute to introduce into it and to cause to predominate.' " 

" Gracious ! " exclaimed Roger ; " why was n't he ever President? " 

Both gentlemen smiled at the boy's peculiar homage to greatness. 

"Why were not other great men, Roger?" Mr. Dunlap said. "Clay, 
Calhoun, Webster, Sumner ? Greatness does not always mean popular 
acceptance." 

" Did you say he was the youngest signer of the Constitution?" asked 
Bert. 

"Not the youngest; one of the youngest signers," said the custodian. 
"The youngest signer was, I believe, Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire. 
He was thirty-two. ' 

"There's his signature," said Marian; "second from the top, under 
Washington's name. Pretty good writer, too, was n't he ? Who was the 
oldest signer ? " 

"A gentleman you have both heard of, I reckon," said the custodian. 
" He knew how to fly kites." 

"Benjamin Franklin!" cried the three boys in a breath; and Christine 
said, "There 's his name, heading the Pennsylvania signers. He wrote 
well for an old man, did n't he? How old was he, sir? " 

" Eighty-one," the custodian replied. 

"There's a funny name — that one there, from Maryland," exclaimed 
Roger. "What is it? Don? no, Dan — I thought it was a Spanish don 
at first — Dan of S. Thos. Jenifer ! What under the sun does that mean ? " 

"Daniel Jenifer, of St. Thomas Parish, Maryland," explained the cus- 
todian. " That was his curious way of putting his residence, or his estate, 
in with his name." 

" But I tell you," said Bert enthusiastically," there 's the best signature of 
them all — the cleanest, the clearest, the strongest, and the best " ; and he 
pointed to the name that led all others on the document : " George Wash- 
ington, Presiding, and Deputy from Virginia." 

The custodian nodded his head with the pride of a loyal American, and 
Mr. Dunlap said, "We ah know that signature, don't we? Do you re- 
member the story about this very one you are looking at ? It is said that 
Washington, who was the first to sign, — as you can see by the position of 
his signature, — stood by the table, held up the pen and said, solemnly, 



26 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



'Should the States reject this excellent Constitution they will probably 
never sign another in peace. The next will be drawn in blood 




"They say, too," said the custodian, "that Franklin watched his associ- 
ates signing- the Constitution, and, pointing to the picture of the sun, half 
up, painted on the wall behind the President's chair, said, ' I 've been so 



THE CONSTITUTION 27 

full of hopes and fears during the Convention that whenever I looked at that 
sun behind the President, I could not say whether it was rising or setting. 
Now I do know; it is a rising and not a setting sun.' " 

" Good for B. Franklin ! " cried Jack, saluting the signature ; and Uncle 
Tom said, "Well, whether Hamilton or Madison was the 'father' of the 
Constitution, whether it was because of Franklin's wise presence, or Wash- 
ington's guiding hand, they builded, as Emerson tells us, ' wiser than they 
knew.' This Constitution has stood for more than a hundred years, and 
yet, in spite of our nation's unexampled growth, in the midst of the demands 
of the world's most wonderful century, the work of the fathers has stood so 
unchangeably the law of the land, that to this document here before us only 
fifteen amendments or alterations have been deemed necessary ; and of 
these fifteen, ten were made within a year after its adoption." 

Then he said, " Come, boys and girls" ; and to the custodian's courteous 
inquiry whether they would not like to see some of the other treasures of 
the Archives Bureau, Uncle Tom replied, "We may trouble you again, but 
not to-day, thank you. We are building the Government ad ovoT 

''Ab ovof What is that, Mr. Latin Expert?" Jack whispered to Bert. 

''Ab ovof Why, from the egg," Bert replied; "that is, from the very 
beginning." 

" From the ^^g, eh ? " said Jack. " Then I suppose that Constitution 
we have just seen was the &<g<g that hatched the — American eagle! I 
wonder if they used an incubator ? " 

And Mr. Dunlap, who overheard the remark, said, " No, Jack ; it was 
hatched by natural methods. There has been no forcing process with these 
United States." They walked up Executive Avenue — separating "the 
President's ground" from the State, War, and Navy Building — and turned 
into Pennsylvania Avenue. 

" Now, where do we go ? " Marian asked ; " to the Capitol ? " 
~ " No," Uncle Tom replied; " to the White House. Let me tell you why." 

" Because the President is the man who has charge of the eagle, I sup- 
pose," said Jack, following out his simile. 

" Well, in a measure, yes," replied Mr. Dunlap, laughing, as the party 
appropriated two of the seats in Lafayette Square and, from the shade of 
its great trees, looked over at the President's mansion across the broad avenue. 

"That document you have just seen," he continued, "was, as you know, 
the foundation of our Government. Although, as Mr. Gladstone, the Eng- 
lishmian, declares, it is ' the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given 
time by the brain and purpose of man,' it was not really an inspiration nor a 
new idea. It was put into form at a given time ; but its ideas were the out- 



28 



f\\E STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 






-*-^. 



i^r 



y 



.n 



fi_i 



Kt 



ffrfVVi 



■^•-< 













-n?.-^^ 



INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, WHERE THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES WAS FRAMED AND SIGNED IN 1787. 
HERE, TOO, THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WAS SIGNED IN I776. 

growth of ages of thought and endeavor. I have read somewhere that 
Magna Charta, the Acts of the Long Parhament (in Cromwell's time), the 
Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States con- 
stitute the record of an evolution. Do you know what that means ? " 

"Why," said Bert, "a regular progress of development or growth, does 
it not?" 

"Exactly," his uncle replied. "The Constitution of the United States 
had its roots in the past, wherever men have labored for liberty, or struggled 
for justice, government, and law. It is, I believe, unique in this : it is, or 
was, the only written constitution framed for the government of a nation and 
signed b\- those who made it. The English Constitution, upon which ours 
is largely based, is not a written document. It is made up of laws, customs, 
and traditions, opinions and decrees, but not in a permanent form, nor put 
into a signed document, as is our Constitution. The acceptance of this 
written constitution made America a nation. Above all laws, above all 
officers, above all measures, stands the Constitution. To it our States, our 
people, must yield obedience. It is a compact between brothers ; but by it 
they must abide. It is the law of the land." 

" But the Constitution did not do away with the .State governments," .said 
Roger. "How could it be supreme?" 

" It was to be supreme in great things," Mr. Dunlap replied ; " it was, 
as it distinctly said in its preface, or 'preamble,' to provide for the common 



THE CONSTITUTION 



29 



defense, promote the general welfare, insure domestic tranquillity. Little 
matters and local affairs it did not touch. There the States were their own. 
masters. But in whatever affected all citizens, the National Government 
was to be supreme." 

" Kind of mixed up, is n't it? " Marian queried. 

" By no means, my dear," said Uncle Tom. " See here. The thirteen Col- 
onies, or States, were, after the Revolution, like thirteen stout twigs — good 
for switches to drive away a 
surly dog or whip an unruly 
boy, but of no service to 
one another, acting separ- 
ately. We tie these thirteen 
switches together with a 
stout band, and behold ! we 
have a broom to sweep away 
obstructions from our door 
and keep our house in or- 
der. That band is the Con- 
stitution. It is union. It 
makes, as the Germans say, 
a staatenbund into a bu7tdes- 
staat. Can either of you 
brush that into English with 
what you know of Ger- 
man ? " 

" A staatenbund — a 
band of states," began 
Roger. 

"Into a binidesstaat — a 
banded state," Christine con- 
cluded. 

" That is good, is n't it ? " 
exclaimed Bert. " I tell you 
.those Germans do know 
we do." 

"That 's it," said Mr. Dunlap ; "and this is what the Constitution, or 
the rope that made the ' banded state,' does : it provides for a National Gov- 
ernment, to run the affairs of the nation, divided into three departments — 
the legislative, which makes the laws ; the judicial, which explains the laws ; 
and the executive, which enforces the laws. It puts the power to enforce the 




CARPENTERS HALL, PHILADELPHIA, WHERE THE FIRST CONTINENTAL 
CONGRESS ASSEMBLED. 



ho 



w to put 



things 



into words better than 



30 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

laws in a single man — the President; it gives the power to make the laws to 
a^body of men divided into two sections — the Congress; it places the power 
of explaining the laws with a few men — the" Supreme Court. These three 
departments work together for a common end — government. The Consti- 
tution says how these men shall be elected or appointed, and how they shall 
act ; and there it stops. It is strong because it says so little. It is the root 
of law, and has lasted because it is so simple." 

"That 's a fact; it does n't say so very much, does it? " said Christine. 

" No ; but what it says, it means," replied Roger. 

" And what it means, it does," said Mr. Dunlap. " Now, it remains for us 
to see how it does it, and for that reason we '11 study up the President first. 
He is the head man of the nation, the single representative of the people's 
will ; the man whose hand is on the tiller to steer the ship of State. Let us go 
across to the White House ; that, you see, is the wheel-house of the ship." 

" I hope they don't have a sign up there : ' No talking to the man at the 
wheel!'" said Jack. And, all together, they crossed Pennsylvania Avenue 
and entered "the President's grounds," walking up the broad semicircular 
driveway, shaded by noble trees. They paused a moment in the great por- 
tico, flanked by Ionic columns, and then, through the open doorway, they 
passed into the home of the President — the Executive Mansion. 




THE BIBLE UPON WHICH WASHINGTON TOOK THE OATH AS PRESIDENT. 
(Copyright, 1889, by St. John's Lodge No. i. New York City.> 




THE WHITE HOUSE, FROM THE FRONT. 




PHOTOCKAPHED ABOUT 1060 BY HE8L£R, CHICAGO. 



HE OKK.INAL NEGATIVE OWNED BY GEORGE D. AVRESj ESQ., PHILADELPHIA. 



w/^7^^2^A>c^r^ 



CHAPTER III 
THE PRESIDENT 



The boys and girls have an introdttction to the President — The White 
Ho2ise — Uncle Tom tells its histo7y — Hozv the presidential office was 
determined upon — The dttties of the Chief Executive — At the Reception. 




I 



FROM A PENNY OF 1791 



T was eleven in the morning, and the President was 
at home." Uncle Tom sent in his card, with a letter 
of introduction and explanation given him by a friend of 
the President and of himself, and, as a result, the "tourists" 
had a special interview with the nation's Chief Executive. 
The young people were ushered into the presence of 
the President of the United States in the spacious egg- 
shaped room on the second floor of the White House, sometimes called the 
Library, and used as the President's Reception Room. 

It was a richly furnished apartment — its windows hung with silk cur- 
tains, its mahogany furniture upholstered in red leather. The sides of the 
room were lined with long, low book-cases crowded with volumes, some of 
which dated back, in the time of selection, to President Fillmore's day. Be- 
tween the windows stood the President's desk, made, so Uncle Tom in- 
formed them afterward, from the timbers of the ship Resolute, sent in search 
of the lost arctic explorer. Sir John Franklin, and afterward presented to the 
President of the United States by the Queen of England. 
The President rose to receive them. 

" Mr. Dunlap, I am happy to meet you," he said ; '' and these, I presume, 
are the young investigators." 

Uncle Tom introduced his party, one by one. 

"And so you are studying the Government of the United States from the 
real article and not from books? A good idea," said the President. 

" Yes, sir," said ready Jack. " We think it 's great. And we begin with 
you — next to the Constitution — as the nation's chief" 

" Its chief working-man, perhaps, my boy," said the President, smiling. 



34 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

"After all, ladies and gentlemen," he added, bowing, "it is more than a form 
of words to say that I am only your humble servant — the servant of the 
people. I am what one of the gentlemen who occupied this house years 
ago called himself — ' an old public functionary.' " 

"That was President Buchanan, was it not, sir?" asked Bert. 

" Yes," the President replied ; " a man who held office in most perplexing 
times. I have to work pretty hard myself, boys, but I don't think I should 
care to exchange places with him." 

"But you could n't, Mr. President," Marian declared; "you 're not old, 
to begin with." 

The President smiled upon the giver of this unconscious compliment. 

" Perhaps it would be better if I were, my dear," he said. " One of our 
own American poets, you know, said 'age is opportunity,' did n't he?" 

"Yes, sir," said Christine; "I think it was Longfellow; my cousin lives 
near where he did," and she designated Roger with a wave of her hand. 

"Ah, from the Hub, my boy ? " inquired the President ; and Bert confessed 
that he hailed from the vicinity of the gilded dome and Memorial Hall. 

" Well," said the President, " Boston was one of the centers of America's 
opportunities ; and opportunity, after all, is what each one of us must seize 
and make the most of, if we wish to show the world what there is in us — no 
matter whether we are oxerworked Presidents or a wide-awake group of 
young investigators. Make the most of your opportunities, boys and girls. 
You have a magnificent chance, in this America of ours, to turn them into 
good and lasting work. Do you stay in Washington long, Mr. Dunlap?" 

" Long enough to let these young folks see as much as possible, Mr. 
President," Uncle Tom replied. 

"That is wise," said the President. "They are sure to see what is best 
here, and never notice what is questionable or faulty. That is the glorious 
privilege of youth. I shall hope to see you again before you go." 

Uncle Tom, realizing that this was a hint for dismissal, and aware that 
an eager crowd of applicants were awaiting their turn, motioned to Jack; 
and the boys and girls, shaking the President's extended hand, received his 
friendly good-byes. 

"This evening is one of the extra reception nights," he said. "As 
a rule, our public receptions are on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, but 
to-night there is a special one. Why not let your boys and girls join the 
crowd, and study it, Mr. Dunlap?" 

"Thank you, Mr. President; they will be glad to, I know," said Uncle 
Tom. And then he and his "tourists" withdrew. 

In the corridor Marian fairly jumped up and down. 




THE INAUGURATION OF A PRESIDENT ON THE STEPS OF THE CAPITOL. 
(JAMES A. GARFIELD, MARCH 4, 1881.) 



36 



IIIE STOKV OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Was n't it fine?" she said. " Just think! we Ve seen the President." 
Then Uncle Tom walked his young" people through the White House, 
a card from his friend to one of the ushers securing for him special privil- 
eo-es. The boys and g-irls saw the public portion of that notable and historic 
house. They wandered at their leisure through the big- East Room, eighty 
feet long by forty wide, in which all the public receptions of the President 




-i- . «■■ 



CORNER OF THE EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 



are held. They inspected and admired the beautiful suite of state-rooms 
opening from it — the Green Room, the Blue Room, and the Red Room. 
They passed behind the sash-screen of stained glass in the vestibule ; they 
promenaded through the long corridor ; they investigated the state dining- 
room; they visited the beautiful conservatories. They passed up the stairway 
and saw the Cabinet Room, in which the President and his chief advisers dis- 



THE PRESIDENT 



Z1 




THE SOUTHERN PORTICO OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 



CUSS the affairs of the nation. They looked at the Executive office and ante- 
rooms ; they were devoured with curiosity to peep into the private rooms of 
the mansion, devoted to the family life of the President ; but here they were 
restrained by the usher's veto and Uncle Tom's warning. Then, at last, 
they gathered upon the colonnaded balcony on the southern side of the White 
House and looked across the verdant lawn to the broad and bright Poto- 
mac and the blue Virginia hills. 

" Oh, what a lovely lawn ! " exclaimed Christine. 

" Here 's where the Washington children come for their Easter egg- 
rolling, is n't it, Uncle Tom ? " Marian asked. 



THE PRESIDENT 



39 



"Yes; this is the spot," her uncle answered. 

" I 've read about that, too," said Christine. " How I should like to 
see itf" 

"So should I," said Marian. "Do you know, if I were here for just 
that day I should n't know which to do — see the egg-rolling, or call on 
the President." 

"Well, you could have your choice," began Jack; "they 'd both of 
'em be on exhibition ; " but here he was promptly squelched by Bert and 
Roger. 

" What do you think of it, boys and girls ? " said Uncle Tom. " The 
President is well housed, is n't he ? " 

"As fine as a king," declared Roger. 

" Is it as grand as a king's palace, Uncle Tom ? " Marian inquired. 

"Well, there are some palaces that are grander," Uncle Tom admitted. 
" But there are few that are more interesting. In fact, the White House 
was, I believe, designed after an Irish palace, — the residence of the Dukes 
of Leinster, near Dublin." 

"The Green Isle forever!" cried Jack. "Just see; we get even our 
people's palace from St. Patrick. Who was the architect. Uncle Tom ? " 

"Why, he was an Irishman, too; a young South Carolinian named 
Hoban," his uncle replied. 

Then Mr. Dunlap told them the story of the White House — how it was 
the first public building completed in the new city, which Washington had 
selected as the site of the capital of the young republic, and to which his 
name was given ; how Washington himself had helped lay the corner-stone 
one October day in the year 1792 ; how he and his noble wife had walked 
through the completed building only a few days before his death in i 799 ; 
how it was wantonly destroyed by British invaders in the year 18 14, and 
how Mrs. Madison had to "unavoidably postpone" her dinner-party, and 
run for her life ; how it was at once repaired and completed by the same 
architect, Hoban, and formally reoccupied by President Monroe ; and how, 
ever since his day, with frequent house-cleanings, alterations, and renova- 
tions, it has been the Executive Mansion of the United States. 

" Many people criticize it," said Uncle Tom. "They say it is not grand 
enough for so great and rich a nation. They say it is old, inconvenient, 
and ramshackly. They say it should be used only for the business offices 
of the President, and that a new and splendid mansion should be built for the 
President's real residence. But I am not so sure that such a change would 
be wise. With all our riches we should be simple, and with all our great- 
ness we should be modest. The White House seems to me to fill the bill." 



40 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




„;,^--^\ 



WEST WINDOW OF THE WHITE HOl'SE. 



"Why, I think it 's just splendid," said Marian. "Think of having your 
home in a house that Washington built and Lincoln lived in ! If I were 
President I should n't want to live anywhere else." 

" So she should live in it," said Jack, teasingly. " When she 's President 
she sha'n't live anywhere else, so she shan't." 

"Do be still, Jack Dunlap," said Marian, laughing. "Who knows? 
Perhaps I may. Why should n't women be presidents. Uncle Tom ? " 

And all the answer wise Uncle Tom made was, " Why should n't they ? " 



THE PRESIDENT 



41 



"But how did we come to have a President, anyway?" asked Bert, 
always thirsting for information. " Was there any worry over that, as there 
was over the Constitution ? " 

" Indeed there was, Bert," Uncle Tom replied, " It was really a matter of 
wide and long discussion. For, you see, when it was decided to make of the 
United States a united nation, there was a great deal of talk as to just what 
sort of a nation it should be, and what should be the position and duties of the 
man who should stand at its head. It was to be a nation in which the people 
were to have both interest and voice. 'We, the people of the United States — ' 
as they said in their written Constitution — covenanted together. The people 
were to rule the Republic. The Congress of the people was to make the 
laws. But, when the laws were made, who was to carry them out ? That 
was the question. Who was to stand as the executive head of the nation ? " 

"Why, George Washington, of course," said Jack. "Who else was 
there ? " 




REAR VIEW OF THE WHITE HOUSE, FROM NEAR THE GREENHOUSE. — TREASURY BUILDING IN THE DISTANCE. 



"That was all right for a starter, Jack," Uncle Tom admitted, "but the 
people were building for the future. Washington could not live forever." 

" But he does, you know," persisted Jack. " He lives in the hearts of his 
countrymen." 

"Do be still, Jack," Marian cried impatiently. "You talk too much. 
Don't listen to him. Uncle Tom." 



42 "THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

"For three days," said Uncle Tom, "die Constitutional Convention of 
1787 debated who should be chief of the Republic and what should be his 
title. There were a few timid ones who had the traditional faith in a king 
and a monarchy," 

" Ho ! a king in America ! " republican Jack burst out. 

" I read something about that," said Bert. "They wanted to offer the 
crown to one of the sons of King George. He was only a boy, and he was 
called — let me see — the Bishop of Osnaburgh, was n't he?" 

" A boy, and a bishop ! — worse and worse ! " cried Jack. 

"Yes, there was some such talk as that, I believe," Uncle Tom replied. 
" But it never amounted to anything, of course. Ever since the first step 
toward liberty, the firm determination of the people had been quite away 
from any idea of king or monarchy." 

"Well, I guess!" interjected Jack. 

" But they could n't settle on the best way," Uncle Tom said. " One 
delegate wanted three heads for the nation — one for each of the three sections 
into which he wished the country divided. It is going to be a big nation, 
he argued, and it will become too big for an undivided Republic. Another 
delegate wished a single executive head joined with an advisory council; and 
still another advocated a single head without a council. But, out of all this 
discussion, action came at last, and the general design, outlined years before 
by Alexander Hamilton, was adopted. The republican spirit conquered all 
other suggestions, and the head of the nation was called the President." 

"Just the President — nothing more?" queried Roger. 

"Just the President. Simplicity was the order of the day, and the sug- 
gestion of one committee that it would be the thing to address the head of 
the nation as ' His Highness the President of the United States of America 
and the Protector of their Liberty' found no favor whatever." 

" I should think not," cried Jack. " Whew ! what a mouthful ! " 

"So it was resolved that the address should be simply ' the President of 
the United States.' And ' Mr. President' it has been to this day." 

"Thank goodness for that!" said Jack. "Suppose, when we had been 
introduced to that very nice gentleman up-stairs, we should have had to 
ko-tow down to the floor and say, 'Your resplendent High Mightiness, how 
does your Supreme Effulgence sagatiate ? ' No, sir ; ' Mr. President ' is all 
right. It just suits us, it does." 

" I quite agree with Jack, though I cannot clothe my reasons in the 
classic and polished language which flows so naturally from his lips," said 
Uncle Tom, while all joined in the laugh with him. " Simplicity is often the 
strongest speech and the most dignified." 








PRESIDENT GRANT. 



44 



'the story of the government 



" But what does the President have to do, Uncle Tom ? " Bert inquired. 
** From what he said to us one would think he had to work terribly hard." 
"Well; he works hard enough, Bert," Uncle Tom replied. '*The Consti- 




IN THE CONSERVATORY OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 



tution gave him four distinct powers or sets of duties. These have to do 
with home aflairs, with foreign affairs, with law matters, and with giving 
people offices," 

"And the last power makes him more trouble than all the others put 
together, does it not, Mr. Dunlap?" Roger remarked. "That 's what my 
father says." 

"Well, so it seems, Roger," Mr. Dunlap answered. " The President has 
the 'say' alK)ut who shall be selected to work for the Government, fron) 
ten-thousand-dollar ambassadors down to thousand-dollar postmasters — 
provided the Senate agrees to his selection. And as there are about fifty 
persons asking for every office, you can imagine how pestered the President 
is by the over-eager people they call office-seekers." 

" Men who want a job, where there is little to do and a good deal to 
get; eh, Uncle Tom?" Jack put in. 



THE PRESIDENT 



45 



"Well, I don't know, Jack," his uncle replied; "there is not such a little 
to do nor such a great deal to get ; but every American citizen seems to 
want an office for himself or a friend. There is a story told of President 
Lincoln that one day, in the darkest time of the war, a friend met him and 
thoup-ht he seemed worried. ' You look anxious, Mr. President,' the friend 
remarked. ' Is there bad news from the front? ' And the perplexed President 
responded, ' Oh, no ; it is n't the war that worries me ; it 's that postmaster- 
ship at Brownsville, Ohio.' " 

" It does seem a shame to put so 
much on him," Christine remarked. 
"Can't some one else do it?" 

"They might," said Mr. Dunlap, 
"but they don't. You see it is what 
is called one of the President's prerog- 
atives. Then, too, he has to please 
the Senate. If they don't like the men 
he appoints they say so, and the Presi- 
dent has to fight it out or make other 
selections, and so the work and the 
worry go on." 

"Then he does n't have the real 
'say,' after all, does he?" said Bert. 

" Why, no ; not absolutely," Uncle 
Tom replied. " It is, of course, a 
great thing to be President of the 
United States. And yet, as a matter 
of fact, the President, to-day, is only 
in theory the hand that carries out 
the will of the people as expressed in 
the Constitution and in the laws made 
by Congress. Of course he exerts a 
great moral influence by reason of his 
position and his power of filling of- 
fices. But he has to yield to others in 

everything. He can make treaties with foreign powers — but the Senate 
can say to him, yes or no. He appoints persons to fill important places of 
trust — but the Senate has the final word. He can sueeest measures and 
methods in a communication to Congress called the ' President's message ' — 
but Congress considers and determines upon them. You see, then, he is 
only, as he told you, your servant — the servant of the people. He has no 




AN OFFICE-SEEKER. 



4'i) 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMEiNT 



more real power than I have or than )ou will have, boys, when )'ou come to 
be voters. So you see your power." 

"Ah! Bert, what will you have?" Jack cried; "the Post-office Depart- 
ment? Roeer, what will vou be? — Minister to Russia? I '11 see to it when 
I begin to vote. I shall have the say." 




f, ..-. 



THE LIBKARY OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 



" Still, the President does have power," Uncle Tom went on. "If Con- 
gress passes a bill he does not like he can put his foot down (by what is 
called his veto) and say it shall not be ; and unless Congress is strong 
enough to pass that bill by a two-thirds vote it cannot become a law. In 
times of desperate danger and turmoil when the very life of the nation is 
threatened and action must be quick, sharp, and determined, the President 
can assume almost unlimited power. In time of war he is Commander-in- 
Chief. Then his will is law. Then the man whom the people have called 
to sail the ship of State must be a wise, safe man upon whom the people can 
rely. Por he must stand at the wheel, and, with a hrm hand guide the ship 
safely past the threatening reefs and rocks and breakers. The President 
must be a strong man, you see." 

" And suppose he dies, what then ? " asked Marian. 



THE PRESIDENT 



47 



*'Then the Vice-President becomes President," replied Uncle Tom. 
" Until that time comes, he is elected simply to stand and wait." 

" ' They also serve who only stand and wait,' " 

quoted Christine; and Jack said, "Ahem! Shakspere — ^no — Milton, I mean." 
"The Vice-President is, therefore, hardly more than a name," said 
Uncle Tom. " If the President dies, or for any reason Is unable to act, the 
Vice-President, as I told you, becomes acting or actual President. But, 
until that time, he is only a substitute, except for his extra duty as chair- 
man or presiding officer of the upper legislative house — for, by virtue of 
his office as Vice-President, he is president of the Senate." 

"But suppose the Vice-President dies," persisted Marian, "then who is 
President ? " 

" Marian, you make me tired," said Jack. " You make me think of the 
story of the woman who pestered the engineer on the Mount Washington 




THE WAITING-ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 



railroad. ' Suppose this thing should give out ? ' she said. ' Then that 
thing would hold us,' replied the engineer. ' But suppose that thing should 
give out? ' ' Then this other thing would hold us,' said the engineer. ' But 
suppose this other thing should give out ? ' persisted the passenger, ' then 



48 



THE STORY OF THE (iOVERNMENT 



='-^MCC 




INAUGURATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, MARCH 4, 1861. (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.) 

where would we go to?' 'Well, madam,' replied the weary engineer, 
* that depends entirely upon how you have been brought up.'" 

And with a laugh at Jack's story, Uncle Tom and his "tourists" went 
down the stairs from the balcony, and walked through the beautiful 
" President's grounds." 

They were wide and cool and shady. There were long stretches of lawn, 
great masses of shrubbery ; lofty, wide-spreading trees ; fountains and seats 
and graveled walks, and off in the distance views of the needle-like obelisk 
of the Washington Monument and the hills beyond the Potomac. The 
children voted the "President's grounds" fine. They looked with approval 
upon the President's house, "even though it is n't as fine as Vanderbilt's," 
said Marian, and they came away with even their youthful inquisitiveness 



THE PRESIDENT 



49 



satisfied. P'or they had seen the very spot in the East Room where the coffin 
of Lincoln rested, the very spot upon which stood young Nelhe Grant on 
her wedding-day; they had seen the window in the Blue Room through which 
President Garfield was brought, the victim of an assassin's bullet ; they had 
stood in the little room, now the office of the private secretary, in which 
Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation ; they had visited the little 
room in which "Old Hickory" Jackson would smoke his dearly loved corn- 
cob pipe. They had seen just where the Easter eggs were rolled down 
the sloping green lawn ; just where the White House children took their 
•daily airings ; they had talked with the man who had served as usher in the 
Executive Mansion since President Lincoln's time. 

The "tourists" came again to the White House. They acted upon the 
President's suggestion and attended his public reception that very evening. 
They enjoyed it immensely. They saw the people ; they joined the throng 
that passed the portals of the mansion ; they wandered through the rooms 
with the stream of patriotic, partizan, curious, and critical visitors, all bent 
upon the same errand — to shake hands with the President of the United 
States. They did so. In the crowded and brilliantly lighted East Room 
they received a word and a smile of kindly recognition; they "studied 
folks " to their hearts' content, and then went to their hotel, and to bed. 

" My, my ! " said Marian, sleepily, as she and Christine said good 
night to each other, " how I pity that poor President ! He did look so 
tired, and so bored. And how his hand must ache ! Bed 's better." 




THE WHITE HOUSE BY NIGHT. 



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CHAPTER IV 



THE CABINET 




WASHINCSTON'S STATE COACH. 



Uncle Tom insists on '■'taking it easy" — His '' Council Chamber''' — A 
talk on the Cabinet — The national riddle — Why it is called the 
Cabinet ; what it does and what famous men have been in it. 

THE next morning the children were anxious 
to start out at once, investigating. But 
Uncle Tom chipped his eggs and sipped 
his coffee with a leisurely air that was ex- 
asperating to go-ahead Jack, anxious to 
be forever on the move. 

" Take it easy ; take it easy, my 
dear and breathless young fellow-citi- 
zens," said Uncle Tom. "■ We 're not rushing to catch a train. You 're as 
restless as if you were bound for a ball-game. We are here for investiga- 
tion, but not for exhaustion. What would your fathers and mothers say 
if I tried to work you to death ? Your legs must be rested as well as ex- 
ercised ; and so must your eyes and brains. You girls are to stay here until 
eleven o'clock. Boys, you can hire bicycles just around the corner. Go 
out for an hour's spin and then come back here for a session. There is 
no better city in the world for bicycling than Washington. But — only an 
hour's spin, remember. We have work in hand." 

The girls were inclined to rebel at the enforced idleness, and to grumble, 
as girls will, because they were not boys. But Uncle Tom was firm, and his 
word was law. 

The boys took their spin as far as Dupont Circle, up and down the 
broad and stately Massachusetts Avenue, lined with fine houses and shaded 
by rows of linden-trees. When they returned, the tourists gathered for a 
talk in Uncle Tom's room. It was a large, pleasant apartment, and the 
children called it the "council-chamber." 
Uncle Tom laid aside his morning paper. 



52 



THE STORV OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Do you remember," he said, "when we were in the Cabinet Room at 
the White House yesterday, and Jack sat in the President's chair at the long 
table, that I propounded that old stager of a conundrum : 'Round the house 
and 'round the house and yet never touches the house ? " 




MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, NEAR DUPONT CIRCLE. 




"Yes," answered INIarian ; "and I wondered what under the sun the 
Cabinet Room had to do with your riddle." 

" It suggested it," said Uncle Tom. "That 's all ; for the Cabinet is, in 
a way, the national riddle." 

" How 's that, Uncle Tom ? " Bert asked. " The Cabinet is the Presi- 
dent's board of advisers, is n't it ? " 

"Advisers whose advice he need not take ; a board of whose proceed- 
ings no record is kept," replied Uncle Tom. " The Cabinet is not recog- 
nized in law ; the Constitution says nothing about it ; it is responsible, as a 
Cabinet, to no one for what it may say or do ; it exists simply at the plea- 
sure of the President, and could be ignored by him, if he so desired, without 
censure or penalty. And yet the President regularly seeks its advice, and 
the Cabinet is, indeed, an important part of our government machinery." 

"Well, that 's a funny thing, surely," said Roger. "What is this Cabi- 
net, then, Mr. Dunlap, and what does it do ? " 

" I told you it was the national riddle," Uncle Tom said. " It 's only 
another case of * 'round the house and 'round the house and yet never 



I 



f 



L 



s 



THE CABINET 



53 



touches the house.' But, to one who looks at it closely, the riddle is easily 
solved. The President's Cabinet is a group of representative American cit- 
izens, called by the President to assist him in his duties. The members are 
responsible to the President for what they say and for what they do. Ap- 
pointed to serve not so much as a Cabinet officer as head of a government 
department, each one of them has charge of a special line of duty and of 
work, and each one is anxious to make a good record as a wise, practical, 
and successful director of affairs. Twice each week, at eleven o'clock in 
the forenoon on Tuesday and Friday, these eight gentlemen go to the 
White House and, joining the President around the long table . we saw in 
the Cabinet Room, they talk over, discuss, suggest, and advise, so that the 
President, after they have left him, may consider what has been said — and 
then do as he deems best. This is the Cabinet." 




THE CABINET ROOM. 



" But why is it called a Cabinet, Mr. Dunlap ? " Christine inquired. " I 
thought a cabinet was a piece of furniture like a sideboard or a wardrobe, 
meant to hold things for use or ornament." 

"Well, what 's the matter with that?" said Jack. "A cabinet is some- 
thing wooden that holds things. If the newspapers run by the fellows whose 
party is not in office tell the truth, that 's what a President's Cabinet always is 



54 



THE 'STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



— wooden-headed chaps who play 'Hold fast all I give you' better than any 
of us can do when we go to parties." 

Uncle Tom held up his hands in mock protest. " Have we a young 
cynic among us?" he cried. "Jack, Jack! you are surely cut out to run 
one of those same opposition newspapers ! " 

" Cut out to run one ! " exclaimed Bert. "Why, don't you know that he 
does .^ Is n't he the editor of The Nonpareil, one of the brightest lights in 
amateur journalism ? You should just read one of his slashing editorials." 

"That 's so," said Uncle Tom; " I forgot that we had a member of the 
I^ourth Estate in our party. This, then, is for his and your better informa- 
tion. The word Cabinet, as we 
use it politically, has a peculiar 
history. When the imported 
German prince George Louis, 
Elector of Hanover, came to 
the throne of England under the 
title of King George the First — 
I told you how, you know, when 
I tried to puzzle you with my 
story of the king who had a 
grandmother — he could not 
speak English and his chief ad- 
visers could not speak German. 
His ministers therefore consulted 
apart from the king in his Ma- 
jesty's private room or Cabinet 
— so called from the French 
word cabine, meaning a small room. After they had talked things over 
they went in t(j the king and told him what they had done in a 
mixed English and German jargon — a sort of 'hog Latin,' you might think. 
These ministers came, at last, to be known, because of the little room in 
which they consulted, as the Cabinet Ministers, or the Cabinet. This word 
found its way across the Atlantic and so, in time, was given to the men who 
were selected as his advisers by the President of the United States, when 
that nation had become independent of the English Georges." 

" Is n't it funny how words travel ! " exclaimed Marian. "To think that 
we should call the men who help our President run tilings, after an old room 
where they used to talk ' hog Latin ' to a Dutchman ! l^ut how do they help 
the President run things. Uncle Tom, if what they tell him does n't amount 
to anything?" 




'•THE EDITOR OF 'THE NONPAREIL." 




HENRY CLAY, SECRETARY OF STATE UNDER PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



56 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




,1111 Xl. .l,.«.l.iHI<H»»llllllllllli{llSi 

WILLIAM H. SEUAKD, SliCKETAUV OF SIATE UNDEK FKIiSIDENTS LINCOLN AND JOHNSON. 



"Don't misunderstand me, Marian," said Uncle Tom. "What they ad- 
vise does amount to somethin^r. It sometimes means a orreat deal. I sim- 
ply said the President was not obliged to act upon their advice. And these 
Cabinet Ministers have plenty of work outside the Cabinet. You know how 
it is in )our father's big- business. He can't look after everything ; so he 
has men with brains to help him keep things going. He divides his busi- 
ness into departments, and at the head of each department he puts a man 
whom he can trust, — a man who knows just how your father wishes things 



THE CABINET 57 

run and who tries to run them accordingly. It is just that way with the 
President of the United States. He is the responsible head of the nation. 
The business affairs of the nation are divided into eight great departments. 
At the heads of these departments the President places men whom he has 
picked out as capable of running them successfully — men who are in sympa- 
thy with his desires, his plans, and his policy. When Washington was made 
President there were but four of these departments. From time to time 
others were created, and now there are eight — the Departments of State, 
of the Treasury, of War, of the Navy, of the Post Office, of the Interior, of 
Justice, and of Agriculture. The officers at the heads of these departments 
are called Secretaries, with the exception of those who have charge of the 
departments of the Post Office and of Justice ; these two are known as the 
Postmaster- General and the Attorney-General." 

" But why should they be generals instead of secretaries ? " asked Bert. 

"Well, I really don't know, Bert," Uncle Tom replied, "unless it is be- 
cause they have the general oversight, rather than the control, of the post- 
masters and the district attorneys throughout the country. They are the 
generals of our armies of postmasters and attorneys. But, whatever the 
distinction between them, these eight men are selected and appointed by the 
President, * by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,' as the Con- 
stitution says — that is, the Senate ' confirms ' or says ' all right ' to the 
President's choice." 

"Then Congress does have something to say in the matter?" Roger re- 
marked. 

" Oh, yes," Mr. Dunlap replied. "It has very much to say. For if the 
Senate refuses to confirm the President's appointments, he must select other 
men for his Cabinet, and keep at it until the Senate is suited." 

" But that is a regular lockout," Jack declared. " If I were the Presi- 
dent, I 'd strike ! " 

"You would n't need to strike very often," said Uncle Tom, "for, as a 
rule, the Senate always confirms the President's Cabinet nominations. It 
would be most unwise to tie his hands at the start. So, even a Coneress 
not in political sympathy with the President 'gives him a show,' as you boys 
say, by letting him have the assistance of the Cabinet officers he desires. 
For, you see, these officers are responsible to the President for what they do, 
and are, in fact, no different from the heads of other departments, except 
that they are selected by the President as his confidential advisers. The 
President is responsible to Congress for them ; their acts are, practically, his 
acts ; they are not permitted to have vote or voice in Congress ; even their 
annual reports are made to the President and not to Congress. So, you see. 



58 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

it is necessary for the President to make good appointments and to keep 
in touch, as we say, with his eight secretaries. Hence, he has the regular 
Cabinet meetings in that room we saw in the White House, for consultation 
and advice." 

"But sometimes — for so you said, Mr. Dunlap — the President does 
thino^s without consulting' his Cabinet. Does not that make trouble?" 
Roger asked. 

"No, Roger," Uncle Tom replied. "As I have told you, the President 
is alone responsible for his acts and sometimes has to take things into his 
own hands. In time of war or in cases of emergency, the President is above 
Cabinet and Congress. He is then more powerful than any king. Then a 
bad President could be a tyrant ; even a good President is almost a dictator." 

" Have there been such times ? " Christine inquired. 

" Yes, several of them," said Uncle Tom. " President Jefferson decided 
one of the most important acts in American history without asking the ad- 
vice of his Cabinet ; that was the purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon, in 
1803. President Polk, in 1846, occupied Mexican territory without the con- 
sent of Congress, and opened the war with Mexico. Lincoln decided upon 
his mighty Emancipation Proclamation without consulting his Cabinet, 
although he read it to them before signing. In fact. President Lincoln 
exercised what are known as his 'war powers,' almost like a dictator. 
He called but few Cabinet meetings. But, in that day of terrible stress, 
even the Constitution itself, the very law of the land, had to stand aside, 
and the great President acted upon his own responsibility." 

" But he was a great and good man," Bert declared solemnly. 

" He was indeed," his uncle acknowledged; "and that is why the peo- 
ple trusted to his wisdom, and Congress sanctioned his acts. They knew 
that great occasions call for speedy action. They knew that when the life 
of the nation was threatened it was both dangerous and disloyal to delay 
things by worrying about just what the Constitution meant ; for, if the war 
could not be victoriously ended — " 

" It was good-by to the Constitution, too," put in Jack. 

" Exactly ; the Constitution would be of no value if the nation were not 
victorious," said Uncle Tom. "So Lincoln's acts were all justified. The 
result proved his wisdom. But, in less able and patriotic hands, the ' war 
powers ' granted him might have been full of danger ; a tyrant might wreck 
the republic, if he had the selfishness of a Ccesar and the will of a Napoleon. 
Happily, however, such times as that are rare, and great tyrants have not 
been known to our history. Abraham Lincoln was, providentially, the man 
for the hour." 



THE CABINET 



59 




UNDER PRESIDENTS LINCOLN AND JOHNSON. 

" But about the Cabinet," said Bert, returning to the main topic ; "is it not 
always made up of the political friends of the President '" 

" Nowadays it is," Uncle Tom replied ; "or, at least, of men who are of 



6o 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




WILLIAM M. EVARTS, ATI ORNEV-GENERAL UNDER PRESIDENT JOHNSON, 
SECRETARY OF STATE UNDER PRESIDENT HAVES. 



the President's politics. At first this was not really so. When Washington 
was chosen President, he belonged to no party. He represented the whole 
American people. Parties had not yet come in to divide American politics. 
So, Washington did not feel bound to choose, as his secretaries, men who be- 
lieved just as he did. He knew there were differences of opinion, but no 
differences of policy. He alone was responsible for his acts as President. 
His desire was simply to appoint the best men as his advisers. In his Cabi- 
net, therefore, were Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, 
and Hamilton, who framed the Constitution. These two great men were ab- 
solutely opposed to each other in opinions, but, though their difference in 
opinions led finally to open hostility as politics grew into parties. President 
Washington kept them both as his advisers. Adams, our second President, 
followed the same course. But with Jefferson, our third President, political 
parties had grown politically hostile, and Jefferson selected as his Cabinet 



THE CABINET 



6i 



men who were of his poHtical way of thinking. All succeedino- Presidents 
have done the same ; and to this day the Cabinet of a President is made up, 
exclusively, of his political friends, associates, or supporters." 

"And that is right, too," partizan Jack stoutly asserted. "It would n't 
be the square thing to have a Cabinet made up of different politics. Why, 
the President could n't ' play ball ' at all. It would be like making up a 
Harvard team with Yale and Princeton players. How would that be, eh, 
Roger ? " 

" Gracious ! " exclaimed the Boston boy ; " you 'd have every man on 
the field kicking before the teams lined up." 

"Well, that 's about so, boys," Uncle Tom admitted. "It Is no more 
than fair that the man who sails the ship should make up his crew to suit 




EDWARD EVERETT, SECKETAKV OF STATE UNDER PRESIDENT FILLMORE. 

himself There is, to use your forcible word, plenty of 'kicking,' as it is. 
To have a divided Cabinet would mean one continual wrande." 

" There have been some great men in the Cabinets, though, have there 
not. Uncle Tom ? " Marian inquired. 

" Yes. indeed, Marian," Uncle Tom replied. " Let 's see ! Whom can I 



62 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



recall? Jefferson, Hamilton. Knox, Randolph, Marshall, Gallatin, Madison, 
Monroe, John Ouincy Adams, Wirt, Van Buren, Clay, Webster, Ewing, 
Everett, Marcy, Crittenden, Cass, Bancroft, Seward, Fessenden, Stanton, 
Evarts, Sherman, Blaine — these, at any rate, I can give you as names who 
have made Presidents' Cabinets strong. Others could be added to this list, 
but tliese are enough to show you that the advisers of our Presidents have 
included men whom the nation delights to honor, and who have left their 
mark forever stamped upon the fabric of their country's greatness." 

''My, though!" said Jack, in an open "aside" to Marian, "eloquence is 
catching here in Washington, I guess. Uncle Tom reels it off, right up to 
the handle, does n't he, now ? ' Fabric of their country's greatness,' is good ! 
I '11 have to remember that. It would n't go bad in one of my Nonpareil 
editorials; eh, Bert?" — for by this time Jack's "aside" had grown into a 
public announcement. 

Uncle Tom laughed good-humoredly, for he knew Jack. 

" No copyright on that. Jack," he said ; " you can use it. And now, you 
young folks, get your traps together and follow me. To the Senate ! " 

" Ah ! " exclaimed Marian, with the emphasis of satisfaction ; " the Cap- 
itol at last ! " 

And Jack as emphatically echoed, " I call it capital, too ! " 




'lint 

FROM CABINET ROOM TO COUNCIL HALL. l'ENNSYLVANL\ AVENUK FROM THE WHITE HOUSlv TO THE CAl'lTOL. 



CHAPTER V 



THE SENATE 



The East Front of the Capitol — A look at the United States Senate — 
Uncle Tom explains — Charles Sumjiers vindication — What the 
Senate is and what it does. 




ROTUNDA OF THE CAPITOL IN 1861. 



*'HE three green cars, gripping the never-resting cable, 
worked their swift trail along the broad avenue. They 
dashed around the generous curves, they slid up the 
sloping hill, they slipped past the Peace Monument, 
sacred to the Navy's dead, past the Botanical Garden, 
green with its avenue of palms, past the Garfield 
statue with its attendant figures of Wisdom, Force, 
and Patriotism, past the Capitol's vast western terrace, 
and, at last, deposited our enthusiastic tourists where 
the wide driveway bends and sweeps before the noble 
East Front of the mighty Capitol. 
The young people paused just a moment to drink in that marvelous 
architectural panorama of the great white wings and the towering dome. 
Then they climbed the famous central steps worn by the footsteps of gener- 
ations of patriots and politicians, of statesmen and sight-seers, and stood upon 
the eastern portico where seventeen Presidents of the United States have 
been inaugurated into office. 

They stopped to breathe and look about them, and Jack, taking that 
single step which is all there is, sometimes, from the sublime to the ridicu- 
lous, nudged Bert and said : 

"Look at that, Bert, will you? Columbus on the steps of the Capitol 
pitching a hot ball to Washington out there on the home plate in East 
Capitol Park ! " 

"And see, boys! G. W. has stripped off his sweater for a home run, 
too," cried Roger. 

Then they all laughed at the very significant attitudes of those two great 




SIljlIT-SIiEKS IN THE KOTUNUA OV THE CAPITOL. 



THE SENATE 



Statues, and, passing through the wide entrance with its storied doors of 
bronze, they stood at once in the vast rotunda of the Capitol. 

Bert whipped out his panoramic guide (Jack called it his "accordion" 
book), and would have studied his surroundings, but Uncle Tom said: "We 
won't stop here now ; we '11 take this later. Come ; the Senate Chamber is 
this way." 

They turned to the right, and passed from the rotunda through the door- 
way whose ridiculous wooden fence seemed strangely out of place amid its 
massive surroundings — "for all the world like a cattle-pen in a palace," said 
indignant Jack — and hurried along the corridor. 

Scorning the waiting elevator they climbed the great marble staircase 
above whose ample landing the gallant Perry looked down upon them as he 
rowed from ship to ship in the 
very heat of the Battle of Lake 
Erie. 

" Girls are of some use, eh, 
Roger ? " Jack whispered as, 
thanks to the presence of the two 
girls, the party had the privilege 
of entrance to the Ladies' Gal- 
lery. From that vantage-ground 
they looked down upon the Sen- 
ate of the United States. 

"Why, Christine; look at 
all those boys, will you ? " Ma- 
rian whispered, excitedly, "Who 
are they ? There are no boy- 
senators surely, Uncle Tom?" 

"Senate pages," he whis- 
pered in explanation. "They 
are employed to carry messages 

and run on errands for the members of the Senate. There are sixteen of 
them here, and the House of Representatives employs thirty-five. The boys 
are paid two dollars and a half a day." 

" Oh, yes," said Christine. " Don't you remember those articles about 
them in St. Nicholas? I have them all in one of the bound volumes." 

" What, the pages ? " whispered Jack. 

" No ; the articles, smarty ! " Christine whispered back. " They were 
written by a man who was one of the pages in this very room, when Charles 
Sumner was in the Senate. I guess they have great times, too, — those 
boys, — from what he said. They are smaller than I thought, though." 




PAGE AND SENATOR SEEN FROM THE SENATE GALLERY. 



66 



THE* STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Who 's the man in the highest chair, behind that desk, Uncle Tom?" 
Jack inquired. 

"That, sir," repHed Uncle Tom, impressiv^ely, "is the Vice-President of 
the United States." 




. IwL. — THE SENATE CHAMBER TO 1 HE IvIGHT. 



" My ! Is it though ? " came from the group of clustered heads. Respect 
and interest mingled with their surprise. 

"Why, of course," Roger remarked. " You said the Vice-President was 
President of the Senate, did n't you ? " 

"You see this aisle just below us?" said Uncle Tom. "Well, the sena- 
tors on that side — to the right of the presiding officer — are Democrats; 
those on the other side, to the left, are Republicans." 

A bald-headed man, whose eye-glasses kept tumbling off, was reading a 
speech from a pile of manuscript. No one seemed to be listening. Groups 
of gray-headed men were talking in whispers ; here and there were others, 
reading newspapers or writing letters ; half the seats were vacant, and the 
pages, clustered on the steps that led to the Vice-President's dais, behind the 
secretaries' table, seemed to be holding animated discussions, from which 
they broke away occasionally, as a senator clapped his hands or snapped his. 
fingers in summons. 

" Looks like a school-room where the teacher can't keep order, does n't 
it? " said Marian. 



THE SENATE 



67 



"And the pages are monitors," said Bert. 

" I don't like it," said Christine. " I think senators ought to sit up 
straight and look dignified." 

Suddenly there was a change. The bald-headed man stopped his dull 
speech and sat down. Two or three gentlemen stood up. There was 
talk, "forward and back," as Marian said, that the children did not under- 
stand. Then a thin, farmer-like looking man rose, and people began to look 
interested. 

He launched into a speech that soon caused the boys to bristle with en- 
thusiasm and the girls to lean forward to catch what he said. A white- 
bearded gentleman on the other side of the aisle rose hastily to protest 
against something the senator had said. There were questions and answers, 
dignified but almost personal in their bearing. Another and another sena- 
tor, now on one side, now on the other, rose to question or support the 



iQaaQfiUiaSa 




SOUTH WING. 



GROUND PLAN OF THE CAPITOL. 



NORTH WING. 



I. Office of the Speaker. 2. Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms. 3. Engrossing Clerks of the House. 4. Journal and Printing Clerks. 
5. Office of the Clerk. 10. Lobby. 12. Cloak-rooms. 13, 14, 15. Committee-rooms. 16. Office of the Secretary of the Senate. 17. 
Executive Clerk. 18. Financial Clerk. 19. Chief Clerk. 20. Engrossing and Enrolling Clerks. 21-22. Committee on Appropriations. 
23. Committee on Enrolled Bills. 24. Cloak-rooms. 25. The Room of the President of the United States. 26. The Senators' Withdraw- 
ing-room. 27. The Vice-President's Room. 28. Committee on Finance. 29. Official Reporters of Debates. 30. Reception-room. 31. 
Post-office. 32. Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms. 33. House Document-room. 34. House Stationery-room. 35, 36. House Committee- 
rooms. 37. Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court. 38. Robing-room of the Judges. 39. Withdrawing-room of the Supreme Court. 
40. Office of the Marshal of the Supreme Court. 



speaker ; pages ran to and fro ; the little mahogany desks began to be occu- 
pied ; things grew decidedly interesting ; the tourists were in the heat of a 
senatorial debate. 

Later in the day, as the sight-seers gathered about the dinner-table 
reserved for them at their hotel, Bert said : 

"What is the need of a Senate, anyway, Uncle Tom? Why could n't 



THE SENATE - 69 

there just be a single Congress, instead of one made up of two sections, as 
ours is ? " 

" Well, for two general reasons, Bert," his uncle repled ; " one because of 
custom, the other because of compromise." 

" Custom ! why there never had been any United States of America be- 
fore," Roger exclaimed. 

" And why compromise ? " demanded Jack. 

" No, there never had been any United States of America before," Uncle 
Tom assented; "but there had been nations and governments; and in most 
instances, where the people had any voice whatever in the government, the 
governing body had been divided into two houses." 

"Just as they have in England the House of Lords and the House of 
Commons ? " queried Bert. 

." Huh ! " cried republican Jack. " I thought the American Revolution 
was to put down such useless things as lords." 

" It did decide against them, certainly," Uncle Tom answered; " and in a 
democracy like the United States a House of Lords was not necessary. But 
the framers of the Constitution saw the wisdom of dividing both the risks 
and the responsibilities, and, remembering their history-lessons at school, they 
followed the examples of other nations ; only they improved upon them : 
they made the Congress of the United States a double body consisting of a 
Senate — " 

" From senex, an old man," whispered classical Bert to modern Jack. 

"All right, old man ; you '11 get there some day," said Jack. 

"And a House of Representatives, or representative men," Uncle Tom 
concluded. 

"That '11 be for me," Jack said in an aside to Bert. 

"And was that the compromise you spoke of, Mr. Dunlap ? " inquired 
Christine, 

" By no means, my dear," he answered. "The compromise I referred to 
was the result of a difference of opinion between the two parties which, even 
at the beginning of things, took sides as to the question of how America 
should be governed. Both sides agreed that it was the duty of Congress to 
arrange the affairs of the country and direct their management. But just 
how this should be done was a disputed point. One party insisted that Con- 
gress should represent only the people ; the other declared that Congress 
should represent only the States." 

" How did they settle it ? " Roger asked. 

" By both sides giving in and both sides getting what they wished," Mn 
Dunlap answered. " For it was determined that both ideas should be rec- 



70 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



ognized. As a result the Constitution divides Congress into two sections — 
the Senate representing the States, as States ; the House representing the 
people, as people." 

Jack rubbed his ear reflectively. " See through it, Roger? " he said. 
"Well, I don't know," answered Roger, slowly. " It is something like a 
class team and a 'varsity team, is n't it? When a class team plays, it plays 
for the honor of the class ; but a 'varsity game is played for the honor of the 
whole college, and every department of the college is interested, from the 
president to the mascot." 

Uncle Tom laughed heartily. "Well, you have something of the idea, 
Roger ; but it is not quite so complicated or partizan. An American voter 
is, )Ou know, not only a citizen of the United States ; he is a citizen, also, of 
his own particular State. So, as a citizen, he elects a man who acts for him 
directly in the National Government by serving in the House of Representa- 
tives at W^ashington ; and, as a citizen as well, he elects men to his State 
legislature who, in their turn, but acting for him, elect two men to represent 
his State in the United States Senate. In other words, I vote direcdy for a 
representative and indirecdy for a senator, so that both my own interests and 
those of my State are served." 

" It 's a good deal like husband and wife, is n't it. Uncle Tom?" asked 
Marian. " Mother takes care of us in the home, and P"ather looks out for us 

outside the home. He gets our bread 
and butter, and she spreads it for us. 
But they both work for us." 

"That 's it," said Uncle Tom. 
"Marian's simile is even nearer the 
point than Roger's. The two houses 
of Congress make our laws, and, 
together, represent all our interests. 
Like your father and mother they 
brinor to their work different ideas and 
methods ; like them they have differ- 
ent duties ; but like them, too, they 
have a common interest ; they are 
married to each other, and whatever is determined upon for the home is, 
really, the work of both." 

" The senators have the longest terms of office, don't they ? " Bert inquired, 
"Yes," replied Uncle Tom. " A senator serves six years; a represen- 
tative two. The term of a "representative is the same as the duration of a 
Congress. But a senator serves through three Congresses." 




PART OF BRONZE STAIRCASE BY BAUDIN IN THE SENATE WING. 



THE SENATE 



71 



'' But why is that? " asked Christine. 

'< Well one idea of the Constitution-makers," said Uncle Tom,- was to have 
the Senate act as a sort of balance-wheel. People are full of impulses, you 




LOOKING UP AUTHORITIES IN THE SENATE LIBRARY. 



know, just like boys and girls. You think one thing to-day, and. Perhaps 
another to-morrow. Things happen to change your opmions or to blmd 
your judgment. The Senate takes things slowly. The House of Repre- 
sentatives, representing popular opinion, often acts hastily and makes mis- 
takes. The Senate can go carefully over these actions and correct mis- 
takes that are due to temporary excitement or partizan desires. Elections 
to the Senate are so arranged that one third of the members go out every 
second year-that is, at the end of each Congress. That, you see, always 
keeps a working majority in the Senate, and the new men cannot control the 
actions of the Senate when they enter it. There is never such a thing as a 
new Senate. As a result, the changes that come at elections, or when a new 



72 THE, STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

President comes into office, do not affect the Senate except to a limited ex- 
tent. So it is the balance-wheel of the nation ; it keeps the machinery of 
ijovernment running' steadily, and, while representing the people, represents 
also that sober second-thought that is always wisest for the people." 

"And yet I suppose folks find as much fault with the senators as they do 
with the representatives, don't they, Uncle Tom ? " asked Bert. 

"Oh, yes, Bert," Uncle Tom replied. "Criticism is easy; people drop 
into it readily, and — well — even senators are not perfect. But, while a sen- 
ator may make mistakes, he is not so directly responsible to the people as is 
the representative. He has six years in which to broaden and improve, 
and he is a member of a body that is supposed to be one of the most digni- 
fied, courteous, and well-balanced assemblies in the world." 

"But suppose he goes wrong," said Jack, "who does pull him up 
short, and call him to account?" 

" No one; unless he does something that is really criminal or illegal," re- 
plied Uncle Tom. " The legislature of his State can pass a vote of censure, 
but that does not affect his office or his standing. I remember that, years ago. 
Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts, broader-minded and more noble even 
than the people of his progressive State, introduced into the Senate a bill to 
erase from the Army Register and the flags of the United States the names 
of battles between fellow-citizens. It was intended to unite all sections of 
the country by making no official record of the strife between brothers that 
had made so dreadful and so bloody our great civil war. But it was not then 
a popular movement. People cried against it as an insult to the soldiers of 
the Union, and the Legislature of Massachusetts passed a vote censuring 
their great senator. How foolish that seems after all these years ! How 
little could the Legislature of Massachusetts appreciate the real greatness of 
the man who had been a foremost champion for liberty and union ! But 
their vote made no difference. They could merely scold ; Sumner remained 
senator still, and their vote did not affect his standing, though it undoubtedly 
made the great statesman sad to see how wrongly men read his heart. But 
men learned a new lesson. Before eighteen months passed the Legislature of 
Massachusetts saw how great had been their mistake, how uncharitable had 
been their judgment. They passed a resolution rescinding the vote of cen- 
sure. That *I beg your pardon' of Massachusetts was read in the United 
States Senate, where Sumner was still a senator. It was a glorious vindica- 
tion, and it fittingly closed a life filled with labor for humanity, for justice, 
and for right. The next day the great senator died." 

Girls and boys, alike, gave a long sigh of interest, satisfaction, and 
respect. 



THE SENATE 



73 




CHARLES SUMNER, SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS, 1851-1874. 



" He was a great man, though, was n't he?"" Roger said, proudly. "I 
have seen his grave so often in Mount Auburn. All it says is 'Charles Sum- 
ner,' but that tells the whole story. What other great men have been in the 
Senate, Mr. Dunlap ? " 

"Oh, a goodly number, Roger," Uncle Tom replied. " Let 's see ! Clay 
and Webster, Calhoun and Wright, John Ouincy Adams and Benton, Van 
Buren and Wise, Everett and Seward, Evarts and Blaine, Sherman and 
Conkhng — and many others whose names have a place forever, for good or 
ill, on the pages of American history." 

"And the Vice-President; is he a senator?" Christine inquired. 



74 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



" Why, no ! " cried Jack. " Don't you know how it is ? They just coop 
him up behind that high desk in the Senate so as to have him handy in case 
anything happens to the President. Is n't that" so, Uncle Tom ? " 

" Yes, to a certain extent," his uncle replied. " But it solved a problem 
to make him the presiding officer of the Senate. A judicial and dignified 

body like that needed one 
who had no State inter- 
ests to serve, as do the 
senators. The Vice- Pres- 
ident of the United States 
stands for the nation only. 
He has no connection 
with the Senate, save to 
keep it in order. He 
cannot vote unless there 
is a tie. Then his impor- 
tance suddenly asserts 
itself; for at such a time 
he can vote, and his vote 
may decide a most im- 
portant question." 

"Well, I 'm glad I 've 
seen the Senate," said 
Bert. " I never exactly 
understood what the sen- 
ators were, or what they 
had to do. Now I begin 
to see — though I must 
say it is not a real easy 
riddle to read." 

"Why, it should be 
for so bright and thought- 
ful a boy as you, Bert," 
Uncle Tom began, where- 
upon Jack said, "Ahem ! 
Albert, my son, arise and return your thanks to the senator from Taffydom ! " 
Uncle Tom gave Jack a pinch. 

" I mean just w^hat I say, Master Jack," he declared. " Now let us see if I 
cannot sum up the Senate in a few words, that may try to tell it all : The 
Senate of the United States is a deliberative assembly representing the 




^^^^^^:^-S^---'Z<^c^-^^-^i^^^^^ 



ONE OF THE GREAT SENATORS. 



THE SENATE 



75 



States of the American Union. In its deliberations every State has equal 
share. To its composition each State contributes two senators, elected, 
not by the people directly, but by the State legislature. The Senate was 
designed by the Constitution for three special purposes — first : to secure for 
all the States an equal voice in one branch of the Government ; second : to 
advise or control the President in making appointments to office and con- 
cluding treaties; third: to act as a curb on unwise or hasty popular judg- 
ment. The Senate, therefore, is a legislative body in helping to frame new 
laws ; it is an executive body in its power to say yes or no to appointments 
and treaties ; it is a judicial body when it sits in judgment on high political 
offenders. It checks, it controls, it censures ; for, in its hands, it holds the 
powers of criticism, of consent, and of correction. The Senate is the na- 
tion's brake or balance-wheel. In its deliberations no State, however laro-e, 
can exert an undue influence ; no State, however small, can be ignored or over- 
awed. Delaware has as much to say as New York. Illinois has no more 
power than North Dakota. The Senate never dies. It is a continuous body, 
having always a stated presiding officer and a working majority of members. 
It is the nation's safeguard against the evils of hasty law-making and the 
risks of political changes. To speak of it as useless is to deny the wisdom 
of the fathers ; to call it an aristocratic assembly is to belittle the will of the 
people. For the Senate is the people's creation quite as much as any other 
department of the Government. To it the people send the pick of their best 
men. In temper, in material, and in wisdom it is but a reflection of the peo- 
ple who make it. In design, in construction, and in administration it is, as 
a famous prime-minister of England said of it, ' the most powerful and 
efficient second chamber that exists.' There, I trust that you have followed 
me, and that I have made myself clear without wearying you. Come ; Con- 
gress is in session to-night. Let us go out and see how the Capitol looks 
lighted up." 

" ' From night to light,' " quoted Jack, who was not a very good hand at 
listening to explanations. 

And the dome did light up beautifully. 




THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 



In Statuary Hall— -A bird's-eye view of the House of Rep7^esentatives — 
Mr. Speaker, the Mace, and the ''Melee'' — Uncle Tom explains it all 
— The sta7iding committees of Congress — What the Hotise really is. 

/ ^ 

ONCE again the "tourists" en- 
tered the historic doorway of 
the Capitol and stood in the rotunda. 
But this time they turned to the left, 
and, passingthroughthe same sort of 
an open "cattle-fence" as had barred 
the way to the Senate, they crossed 
the marble floor of Statuary Hall. 

They would have lingered here, 
in the room that once had been the 
Old Hall of Representatives ; for in 
that chamber, recalling to classical 
Bert what he had read of the thea- 
ters of ancient Greece, were many 
portrait-statues of famous Ameri- 
cans, full of interest to these young students of American history. 

But Uncle Tom had other designs upon their time, and hastened them 
on. They trod the long corridor and, as before, scorning the proffered 
elevator, climbed the marble staircase above whose first broad landing they 
saw Leutze's great painting of the old-time emigrants crossing the Plains — 
" Westward the course of Empire takes its way." 

■ Then, thanks again to the company of the two girls, they availed them- 
selves of the privileges of the Ladies' Gallery, and soon, from a front seat, 
were looking down upon a bustling throng of law-makers — the duly elected 
members of the House of Representatives. 
It was an animated scene. 




■ FORMERLY THE HALL OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 79 

"Makes you think of the Stock Exchange, does n't it?" said Jack, the 
New-Yorker. 

" Or of a terribly disorderly school-room," commented Marian. 

" I should n't think they could hear themselves think," Roger declared, 
as he strained his ears to make some sense out of all the hubbub. 

It was indeed an apparent hurly-burly upon which the five children 
looked down. There was motion everywhere. The great hall was filled 
with men. They were coming and going from the rooms that opened into 
it ; they were passing and repassing in the wide, open spaces at the sides 
and in the rear. Groups were conversing here and there ; men were hurry- 
ing this way and that — "as if they were sent for," Christine declared. A 
ceaseless buzz of talk and laughter filled the air. Pages were darting up 
and down the aisles and in among the desks, with books or letters or papers, 
or on some incomprehensible duty. One man was trying to make a speech 
that no one cared to listen to, or could hear if one did care to listen. 

The floor of the great carpeted hall was furnished with numerous little 
desks and cane-seated revolving-chairs. Many of these were vacant. Others 
were occupied by men, reading or writing ; or neighbors, sitting at their ease, 
were deep in conversation. 

It did look, as Marian had said, like a terribly disorderly school-room, 
and the least concerned of all in the room seemed to be the gentleman who 
sat in the high chair beneath the draped flag, and who, Marian felt certain, 
would not long be permitted to teach school in New York, because, she said, 
" he did seem to be such a poor disciplinarian ! " 

" Who is he ? " Christine asked. 

Just then the man who had been trying to make a speech seemed to give 
it up as a bad job, and sat down. Instantly the noise grew louder. Men 
sprang to their feet. They seemed raising their hands to "ask permission"' 
as children do in school. 

"Mr. Speaker!" "Mr. Speaker!" "Mr. Speaker!" a dozen voices 
shouted all over the room. 

"That's who he is," said Uncle Tom. "The man who really wields 
more power and has a greater influence than almost any other man in the 
United States. He is the Speaker, or presiding officer, of the House of 
Representatives." 

A big man with a mighty voice rose at the marble " counter " just below 
the Speaker's desk. 

"That is the Clerk of the House," said Uncle Tom. 

The clerk had a paper in his hand and read something that the children 
could not understand, he talked so loud and so fast. 



8o 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



" He is reading- a bill, for the information of the House," Uncle Tom 
explained. 

" Mr. Speaker !" '' Mr. Speaker ! " " Mr. Speaker ! " again came the cry 
from a dozen throats. 

The noise grew louder than ever. Mr. Speaker pounded his desk with a 
big mallet. 

"The gentleman from Alabama," he said, and all the other claimants sat 
down. 

"Oh. that 's not fair!" cried justice-loving Jack, almost aloud. "That 
man did n't call Mr. Speaker first. I was watching to see. Why did the 
Speaker give him the chance ? I don't believe he recognized the right 
man." 

"Going down to tell him so, Jack?" asked Bert: for Jack in his excite- 
ment was leaning far over the gallery-rail. 

" Well I like to see folks act square," said Jack, drawing himself in 
again. 

" Don't worry, Jack," Uncle Tom said. " He was square enough. The 
vSpeaker knows beforehand who has the right to the floor. He has a list 

of those who have asked for recognition, and gives 
them their chance in regular order."- 

" But why do they all yell out so then ? " de- 
manded Jack. 

" Oh, simply to emphasize their desires, and 
keep themselves 'in the Speaker's eye,' as they 
say," Uncle Tom explained. " You think everything 
is helter-skelter here," he added, "but there is a 
method in all this seeming madness. If you could 
once get used to the confusion and get the hang of 
things, you would find that everything is regular 
and shipshape. Procedure goes by rule here, and 
the rules are respected by the noisiest and obeyed 
by the most unruly. If not — there stands the 
mace." 

"The mace? — what is that?" asked Roger. 
" Don't you see that thing that looks like a bundle of rods with an eagle 
on top — there, at the right of the Speaker's desk?" 

" Wh\-, yes." said Bert. " It looks like the picture of the Roman/asces in 
my ' Cccsar.' " 

" It is a sort of reproduction of thc/asces or the lictor's rods of old Rome," 
Uncle Tom announced. " Like them, too, it is the symbol of authority. 




THE MACE. 



THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 




IN THE LOBBY. 



When that man who sits beside it and who is called the serpfeant-at-arms 
takes up the mace and holding it before him marches straight into the hurly- 
burly it means business, and not the loudest, the angriest, nor the most ob- 
streperous representative but respects it, and drops at once 
into his seat and silence." 

The children stayed a long time in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. They enjoyed it all immensely. To be sure, 
they could scarcely make out a thing that was said; they 
could not hear a speech nor follow the heated discussions 
that kept springing up. They could not tell what the clerk 
was thundering out, what the Speaker said, why he ham- 
mered his desk so lustily, nor what good it did to hammer. 
But there was life, there was action, there was excitement 
there; and these the children delighted in, even if they did 
not know what it was all about. 

Jack declared it was great fun; "as good as a foot-ball 
rush or a tug of war," he said ; and the young people grew as flushed and 
excited in their seat in the Ladies' Gallery as though they were down there on 
the floor of the House, trying to send their cards to a member, running with 
the pages, pounding with the presiding officer, or "Mr. Speakering" at the 
top of their voices with the most determined congressman. 

But when they had left the great hall and, after a tour of the lobbies, had 
gathered for rest and fresh air upon the low stone coping-seat along the 
beautiful front of East Capitol Park, — just behind the 
father of his country " forever muffing a ball," as Jack 
explained, — Uncle Tom said inquiringly : 

"Well, girls and boys; what do you think of the 
business of law-making ? " 

"Hot work," declared Jack. "Why, my throat got 
raw, just listening." 

" I don't see how they can make any laws in such a 
hubbub," said Christine. 

"Well, as a fact, they don't," replied Uncle Tom. 
" What you have just seen is the House in session. And the House in ses- 
sion is not men making laws, but men struggling for a chance to introduce 
new laws or to have something to say about laws that are nearly made — 
or not made." 

"But where does the law-making come in then?" queried Bert. "I 
thought those representatives were our law-makers." 

" So they are," Uncle Tom replied. "But laws are framed or made only 




»■■' \ 



A CARD TO A "MEMBER. 



82 



TliE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



with thought and care and method. Did you see much chance for those 
three ingredients of good law-making in the big hall yonder?" 




WHEKK THE FIKST HOUSE OK REPRESENl ATIVES MET. (FEDERAL HALL LN NEW YORK AS IT LOOKED IN I790.) 



'It's all chance," Jack commented; "not much certainty, at any rate." 

'* Would n't the first members of Congress open their eyes if they could 
see it to-day ? " said Marian. 

"They would, indeed," said Uncle Tom. "That first Congress met in 
Old Federal Hall in New York city. Its House of Representatives had 
but fifty-nine members. To-day it has three hundred and fifty-six." 

"But where are the laws made if not in Congress?" asked Roger. 

" First let us see what the House of Representatives really is," said Uncle 
Tom. "A distinguished English writer has asserted that it is nothing less 
than a big meeting of more or less idle people. He further declared Con- 
gress to be a despot, with unlimited time, unlimited vanity, and unlimited 
comprehension (by which he meant 'cheek'); whose pleasure is action, 
whose life is work. How does that strike you ? " 

"It 's no strike at all; it 's a foul ball." cried indignant Jack, roused to 
patriotic protest. "That 's the way with all those Englishmen. They pitch 
into anything American, on principle." 

" Oh, it 's not so bad as that. Jack," said Uncle Tom. " It is simply that 
the English point of view is different from ours. We should never object to 
honest criticism. But the Englishman was wrong. Congress, indeed, has 



THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 



83 



great power ; but it is power given by the people and used for the people. 
A despot is always selfish ; Congress is not selfish ; it is, in intent, helpful, 
and there are but few of its members who do not have a sense of their duty 
and a desire to do this duty." 

"Somebody," said Roger, "once sent my father a little book entitled, 
'What this Congress has Done' — and, when he opened it, he found it a 
blank book ! " 

At this, Jack laughed immoderately ; the girls looked puzzled, and Bert 
was silent. 

But Uncle Tom said, "A partizan criticism, I fear, pushed to extremes 
for the sake of the joke. People are impatient. They have an idea that 
all Congress need do is to assemble, pass a few^ good laws or bills that will 
help the country and ' boom ' business, and then adjourn." 

"Well, why can't they?" queried Jack. 

"Huh! a fine lot of law-makers they would be," cried Bert. "Rome 
was not built in a day, Johnny, my boy." 




A QUIET CORNER IN THE HALL OF REPRESENTATIVES 



"Indeed it was not," Uncle Tom commented "The House of Repre- 
sentatives is a big and unwieldy body. It is not a debating society, like 
the Senate. It is a law-making assembly, doing business by proxy." 



84 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



•' By proxy ! what is that, Uncle Tom ? " asked Marian. 

" Bert?" Uncle Tom said, turning to the student. 

"Abbreviation of procuracy, from the Latin pi'o and euro, to care for," 
replied Bert. 

"Which means caring for some one else's business," explained Uncle 

Tom. "In other words, my 'proxy' 
is some one who represents me in 
carrying on or carrying out my le- 
gitimate business." 

"And who is the proxy of Con- 
ofress ? " asked Christine. 

" Certain men selected from Con- 
ofress to take charo-e of different in- 
terests," replied Uncle Tom. " Every 
measure upon which action by Con- 
gress is necessary after the proper 
examination, is handed over to these 
men for examination. They are di- 
vided into little groups called ' Stand- 
ing Committees,' and upon one or the 
other of these Standing Committees 
every senator or representative must 
serve. There is where the bulk of 
the work of congressmen is done ; for 
everv Congress is flooded with bills 
of every description that go first to 
the Standing Committees for exam- 
ination and recommendation. So 
Congress, you see, makes our laws 
after they have been considered and 
reported by its Standing Committees." 
" I don't see but these Committees 
have more to say than any one else," 
said Bert. 

"They do," said Uncle Tom; 
"for upon their report on a bill the 
fate of that bill depends. In fact, it 
has been direcd)' asserted that the United States of America is governed 
not by President, Senate, or House of Representatives, but by the Standing 
Committees of Concress." 




THK BIG POLICEMAN ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. 



THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 85 

" How many are there?" asked Bert. 

" There are, I think, forty-six Standing Committees in the Senate and 
fifty-six in the House," Uncle Tom rephed. " In the Senate, these Com- 
mittees are chosen by ballot ; in the House they are appointed by the 
Speaker. There are also in the Senate fifteen Select Committees, as they 
are called, for special but minor cases." 

"There; now I see why Mr. Speaker is so powerful," cried Marian. 
" Of course if he appoints these Committees in the House he can pick out 
the men he wishes to lead them, and so — " 

" Becomes the biggest toad in the puddle," broke in Jack. " Don't you 
see, if he 's a Democrat he can make the Committees all Democratic 
and freeze out the Republicans; or, if he 's a Republican — terra firman 

''Terra firmaf "Oh, Jack Dunlap ! " cried Marian and Bert, while the 
others laughed merrily. 

"You mean vice versa, of course," said Bert. 

"Well, perhaps I do," said Jack, a trifle cast down. "You seem to 
know what I mean better than I do myself 'Just the opposite' was what I 
meant, whether the Latin for it is vice versa or terra firma''' 

" Oh, Jack, Jack ! " said Uncle Tom, with one of his very rare attempts 
at a pun, "if you would only be firmer in your determination to study, 
your Latin would n't be quite such a terror." 

Then, escaping from the "punching" administered by his nephews, 
Uncle Tom remarked, "Well, Jack 's wrong anyhow. The Speaker, be- 
cause of his power of appointing these important Standing Committees, is, 
indeed, an autocrat. His word is law, and the Committees he appoints 
really make the laws. In fact, there is often as much of a contest over the 
election of a Speaker of the House of Representatives as over that of a Pres- 
ident of the United States. But Tack is wronor in his committee-makino". 
Of course the balance of power in each Committee will be according to the 
politics of the Speaker who names the Committee. But he always allows a 
minority representation in the Committee. So, for instance, if the Speaker 
is a Republican, on a Committee of five, three will be Republicans and two 
Democrats, or — vice versa, Jack, according to the politics of the Speaker, who, 
of course, represents the political majority of Congress." 

" But what things, for instance, do these Committees attend to, Mr. Dun- 
lap ? " inquired Christine. 

" Oh, fifty different things," said Uncle Tom. " In the House there are, as 
I have told you, fifty-six Standing Committees. Of these the most important 
are the Committee of Ways and Means, who decide how the money to run 
the Government shall be obtained ; the Committee on Appropriations, who 




'that eccentric VIRGINIAN, JOHN RANDOLPH, OK ROANOKE, USED TO STRIDE INTO THE HOUSE. 



THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 87 

consider all suggestions as to how this money shall be spent; the Committee 
on Elections, who decide which man was elected when more than one claims 
the seat ; the Committees on banking and currency, on accounts, rivers and 
harbors, judiciary (to consider changes in law and justice), railways and 
canals, foreign affairs, naval affairs, military affairs, public lands, agriculture, 
claims for pensions and relief (from old soldiers or those who think the 
Government owes them money), mines, ventilation, woman suffrage, liquor, 
irrigation, labor, and lots of others." 

"Well, they do cover about everything," said Roger. "Where do they 
meet ? " 

"You saw some of the larger Committee Rooms in the Capitol, you re- 
member," said Uncle Tom. " Both in the Senate wing and in the House 
wing. But even the great Capitol is overcrowded. Look there ! Do you 
see that red brick building over across the Capitol grounds to the right of 
the Senate wing? That used to be a hotel — the Maltby House. It is 
now the Senate annex. And over there, to the left of the House wine, do 
you see a large gray stone house? That was built by General ' Ben' But- 
ler, of war-time fame, and was bought by the Government. It is the House 
annex. Both those buildings are used by the smaller Standing Committees 
of Congress, simply because there is no room for them in the Capitol. That 
gives you an idea of the magnitude of the Committee government which 
.acts as proxy for Congress and does all its business in advance — except ac- 
tually voting it. How important this is you may know from the fact that 
nine tenths of the bills taken charge of by these Committees 'die in com- 
mittee,' as it is called. The country and Congress never hear of them. 
They are either not worth anything or not good enough to stand a chance 
of becoming laws." 

Jack looked at his watch. 

" Mr. Speaker," he said, " I move that the House do now adjourn." 

" Or that the Committee of the Whole rise and go to dinner," amended 
Bert. 

As the tourists, unanimously agreeing to this proposition, strolled leisurely 
down the slope and along Pennsylvania Avenue, Uncle Tom told them many 
interesting stories of the busy but noisy House of Representatives. He told 
them how that eccentric Virginian, John Randolph, of Roanoke, used to 
stride into the House dressed in greatcoat and fur cap, homespun suit, 
white-topped boots and silver spurs, with his dogs at his heels and his rid- 
ing-whip in his hand; how Corwin joked, and Edward Everett "orated," 
and Abraham Lincoln sat almost unknown as the congressman from Illinois; 
how, in fact, thirteen Presidents of the United States had served their con- 



THfi STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



stituents as members of the House of Representatives, and how one President 
and the son of a President — John Ouincy Adams — was a member of the 
House after his retirement from the presidency, and died on its floor — 
Hterally " in harness." Then, turning from story to description, Uncle Tom 
summed up his study of the House in this wise : 

"The House of Representatives," he said, "is a direct outgrowth of the 
principle in defense of which our fathers signed the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence and fought the Revolution: no taxation without representation. It is 
composed of a continually increasing number of members, arranged, as are 

our taxes, upon the basis of population. 
This basis, of course, changes with each 
census. When the nation started out in 
1789 the proportion was one member of 
the House of Representatives for every 
thirty thousand persons. The original 
House had, therefore, sixty-five members. 
To-day, with a population of sixty-five mil- 
lions, the ratio, based on the census of 1893, 
is one member for every one hundred and 
seventy-four thousand people, or three hun- 
dred and fifty-six representatives. Thus, 
you see, the House of Representatives 
actually represents the people. It was 
designed by the Constitution as a law- 
making body, a supply-granting body, a 
tax-raising body, and a money-spending 
body. It has two functions that no other 
branch of the Government possesses. It 
alone can originate bills which shall spend 
the people's money ; it alone can call to account, by what is termed im- 
peachment, the highest officials of the Government. The members of the 
House of Representatives are elected for a term of two years. This two- 
years' term is called a Congress; at the end of those two years Congress 
dies, and the representative goes out of office. He may or may not be 
reelected to Congress. That depends upon the people and politics ; and, 
as you know, politics change and so do people. Some congressmen have 
served many terms in the House ; many have served but one term. The 
House of Representatives is big and noisy, and hard to handle; but it is run 
by rule, and so, even though you could not see it, order comes out of chaos. 
These three divisions of our Government, — the President, the Senate, and the 




A CONGRESSIONAL PAGE ON DUTY. 



THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 



89 



House of Representatives, — though practically separate and on their own 
hook, are still associated with one another in many ways, and by their powers 
of originating, making, and enforcing laws are really the governing powers 
of the nation — the representatives of the people's will — the shapers of the 
people's power into deed and act. But I am talking too much. The Com- 
mittee on Mastication and Digestion is ready for deliberation. Its Com- 
mittee Room is the hotel dining-hall. Come, young folks; get ready for 
dinner at once." 

Then they " meandered " home so impressed with their importance as 
members of a " Special Committee," that Jack even dared give the nod of 
an equal to the lordly black policeman on Pennsylvania Avenue ; and after 
dinner, "for digestion's sake," he and Roger whirled away on their bicycles 
until the twilight touched and mellowed the distant Virginia shores. 




A QUIET EVENING. — THE CITY OF WASHINGTON FROM THE VIRGINIA SHORES. 





JOHN MARSHALL, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1S01-1835. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE SUPREME COURT 

l^he puzzled toicrisis — -Dignity and silence — The old Senate chamber — 
A lesson in law — The Supreme Court and its branches — What it is 
to Am^erica and Americans. 




K 



SEAL OF THE SUPREME COURT. 



^T noon, next day, Uncle Tom and his tourists, wearied by 

a morning of sight-seeing amid the marvels and relics 

of the Smithsonian Institution and the splendid National 

Museum, sought the cool corridors of the Capitol for rest 

and shade. 

The young people were undecided between a visit to the 
dim and "spooky" crypt that Jack said he heard was away 
•down under the Capitol — "Just like the deepest dungeon 'neath the castle 
moat in Scott's novels," he declared — and a test of the Whispering Gallery 
away up in the Capitol dome. But Uncle Tom solved the question by 
pausing before one of the swing-doors in the hallway, above which blazed 
•out the arms of the United States. 

" Come; we will go in here," he said. 

The two leaves of the rubber-stripped door gave not a sound, so noise- 
lessly did they open and shut ; the silent doorkeeper simply bent his head in 
permission of their entrance, and the five children stood within a large, 
quiet, semicircular chamber, with high domed roof and marble columns. 
Tables, desks, chairs, and sofas filled but nowhere crowded the ample floor- 
space, and at the rear of the room ran a long platform upon which, behind 
a curtained rail, a number of comfortable arm-chairs were ranQfed in line. 

Behind the chairs a high, wide arch, hung with looped curtains of crimson 
velvet, half concealed a broad and pillared recess, above which perched the 
American eagle, with outspread and protecting wings. 

The tired tourists sank down upon one of the largest of the recessed 
velvet sofas, and looked curiously about them. 



92 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 



It all seemed so very quiet and solemn that even our young irrepressibles 
were awed into wondering whispers. 

"What is it? " queried Christine in an undertone. 

" Private theatricals or a minstrel show, I guess, by the look of the cur- 
tain and the chairs," said Jack. 

The hands of the h'lQ- clock that hune above the eaofle met at twelve 

o o o 

o'clock. A door at the right opened noiselessly and in walked a stately pro- 
cession of nine diijnified and orave-lookinof ofentlemen robed in black silk 
gowns. 

" Bishops, I guess," whispered Jack, and Marian laid a hand on her 
uncle's knee. "Is it a church, Uncle Tom?" she asked. Bert and Chris- 
tine looked solemnly excited, and Roger, who was a choir-boy at home, 
wished he had slipped his Church Service into his pocket. 

But, as the nine robed gentlemen entered, every one in the room stood 
up, and a man at the left of the platform said in a loud and impressive voice 
of introduction: 

"The Honorable the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States ! " 



THE SUPREME COURT 



93 




IN SESSION. — A LAWYER ADDRESSING THE COURT. 



Then the boys and girls knew where they were. Uncle Tom had 
brought them into the beautiful chamber devoted to the sessions of the 
third great department of the Government — the Supreme Court of the 
United States. 

" That is the Chief Justice at the head of the line," said Uncle Tom. 

As they looked upon those nine dignified and scholarly men, upon 
whose decisions so many great questions of law depend, the gowned justices 
bowed to the standing audience and then (the Chief Justice in the middle) 
they seated themselves in the comfortable arm-chairs awaiting them, " ex- 
actly like the minstrels," declared Jack, with just that touch of boyish 
irreverence that sees the comic side of everything. 

Then everybody sat down, except the crier, who, still standing at his 
desk, said authoritatively but just a bit monotonously: 

" Oyez ! oyez ! oyez ! All persons having business before the Honor- 
able Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to draw near and 
give their attention, for the court is now sitting. God save the United 
States and this honorable court ! " 

It was all very impressive. But, after a half-hour, the law questions that 



94 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

arose between the judges on the platform and the lawyers on the floor gave 
place to a long and dry legal speech by one of the lawyers. The tourists, 
rested as to their legs and weary of listening to what did not especially in- 
terest their excitement-craving natures, looked at Uncle Tom for permission, 
and then rising, filed slowly out of the room, as silently and as quietly as 
they had entered. 

In the corridor without, Jack drew a long sigh of relief, and it almost 
seemed as if he would have cut a pigeon-wing, save for the restraining hand 
of Uncle Tom. 

" I can't help it. I feel as if I must holler," he said. " It was all so 
quiet and solemn and — stupid, in there. Is it always so, Uncle Tom.'*" 

"Not always," replied Uncle Tom. "Sometimes there are very inter- 
esting speeches and discussions to be heard. And when your mind grows 
more thoughtful and legal you can enjoy even what you now call solemn 
and stupid. Justice, my dear boy, is never stupid." 

" But what is it all for? What do they do there? Tell us all about it," 
said Bert, the tireless information-hunter. 

Uncle Tom found a quiet resting-place in the Senate Extension portico, 
beneath Crawford's great grouping of the Progress of American Civilization. 

"That is a notable and historic room that you have just left," he said. 
" Until i860 it was the Senate chamber of the United States. There ereat 
statesmen have labored ; there great orators have spoken. There Webster 
made his wonderful speech against Hayne — " 

" The ' Liberty and Union now and forever one and inseparable ' speech?" 
inquired Roger. 

"That very speech," replied Mr. Dunlap. "There John Quincy Adams, 
' the old man eloquent,* as he was called, stirred men to duty and action ; 
there Henry Clay enchanted audiences with his wonderful gift of oratory, 
and Calhoun made his record as a politician without trickery and an orator of 
force and strength ; there Douglas made good his nickname of ' the little 
giant'; there Sumner spoke for freedom and fell beneath the savage blows 
of an enraged opponent ; there ten presidents of the United States served 
terms as senators ; there the councils of the nation grew divided, as the 
struggle for the nation's life approached, and there for many years men now 
famous in our history labored, debated, argued, and worked for union and 
good government." 

" My, though ; I wish we had known all that when we were there," 
Marian said. "It would have made the room all the more interesting." 

" But where was the Supreme Court held when that room was the Senate 
chamber ? " asked Bert. 



THE SUPREME COURT 



95 



" Down in the basement of the Capitol," repHed Uncle Tom, " in a low 
vaulted room which is now occupied by the Law Library, and which I will 
show you before we get through our investigations." 

"Then one might say, I suppose," said Jack, just a trifle rhetorically, 




IN THE LAW LIBRARY, FORMERLY THE CHAMBER OF THE SUPREME COURT. 



"that the Capitol of the United States had its foundations on law and order 
and was crowned by liberty." 

" Meaning the Supreme Court in the basement and the goddess of liberty 
on the dome, eh. Jack?" queried Bert. 

And Marian added, "Now, I call that not bad — for Jack — is it. Uncle 
Tom ? " 

"No, not at all bad — for Jack — or, for that matter — any of you," her 
uncle replied. "It is a good analogy ; and, further, the Supreme Court 
took a step upward with the new order of things. For it was removed to its 
new home in the room we have just visited, when, in i860, the new Senate 
chamber was completed, just at the time when the nation was entering upon 
the struggle that meant liberty for all and progress for America." 

" But just what is the Supreme Court, Mr. Dunlap ? " Christine in- 
quired. 

" It is the balance-wheel of the Government of the United States," Uncle 
Tom replied. 

" But you said the Senate was that. Uncle Tom," said Bert. 

"Well, it is," returned Uncle Tom. "But you have heard of awheel 



96 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



within a wheel, have you not ? The Supreme Court is the inner wheel that 
balances, by its fine exactness, all our machinery of government. It is what 
we call the ' conservative force ' in our political system ; for it keeps us up 
to the constitutional mark ; it holds all the parts of our governmental ma- 
chinery together and keeps each in harmony with the plan of the whole." 

"Just like one of those great engines on the Sound boats, is it not?" 
queried Roger. " You look at that machinery through the big glass window 
in the main saloon and you wonder how all those parts fit and act together 
so perfectly. I suppose it all depends upon something that regulates the 
action and keeps all the machinery working just as the designer meant it 
to. Is n't that like the Supreme Court? " 

"That 's the idea, precisely," said Mr. Dunlap ; and Jack said, "Great 
head, Roger ! " and patted the Boston boy approvingly. 

"You see, in our national system," 
Uncle Tom continued, " we have parts 
that might pull away from each other 
and upset things, if they did not work 
together in unison. We have the di- 
vided sovereignty of the States and the 
concentrated sovereignty of the nation. 
Authority is, therefore, distributed be- 
tween the States and the nation ; and 
a man, by obeying a State law, might 
disobey a national one. So, serious 
questions as to rights and powers are 
continually arising ; these would lead 
to disastrous conflicts, which might 
shake and almost shatter our framework 
of popular government were there not 
one power to regulate things and keep 
them going in good order. This power 
is the Supreme Court. It is the third 
great department of government. This 
is all in accordance with the Constitu- 
tion. That wonderful document, you 
know, vests the first department of gov- 
ernment — the legislative power — in 
Congress; the second — the executive power — in the President; the third 
— the judicial power — in the Supreme Court." 

" But how is the Supreme Court the regulator? " asked Bert. 




JOHN JAV, I HE UK 



JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



THE SUPREME COURT 97 

" By deciding things," said Uncle Tom. "The Supreme Court neither 
makes laws, originates business, nor executes laws. It can have nothing to 
say beforehand about what the Government does. It cannot prevent Con- 
gress from passing any law ; it cannot interfere with any order of the Presi- 
dent. But, if a law is made or an order issued, should the question be 
brought before the Supreme Court, that judicial body can say: 'This act of 
Congress, or that order of the President, is contrary to the law of the land ; 
it is unconstitutional.' That settles it. The act of Congress is but waste 
paper; the order of the President is good for nothing." 

" But is that right?" asked Jack. " Seems to me it makes the Supreme 
Court bioforer than Cong^ress or the President." 

"It is, in matters of constitutional decision," said Uncle Tom. "And 
that is right. For a congressional majority may be tyrannical ; a President 
may be selfish or bad. The Constitution limits their powers, and the Su- 
preme Court, as the expounder of the Constitution, lays its hands upon bad 
law-makers or bad executors and says: 'Stop! what you have done is con- 
trary to the Constitution. It shall not stand' — and it does not." 

" And do those nine men we just saw do all this ? " asked Christine. 

"Only as parts of a carefully regulated legal system," said Uncle Tom. 
" There are many questions that come to the Supreme Court for decision. It 
deals with questions of law that arise out of constitutional issues. In other 
words, — let me see if I can remember my 'Kent's Commentaries' that I 
studied in the law-school, — it deals with cases ' which touch the safety, 
peace, and sovereignty of the nation, or which presume that State attach- 
ments, State prejudices, State jealousies, and State interests might some- 
times obstruct or control the regular administration of justice.' Do any of 
you know what that means ? " 

"Why, I suppose," said Bert, slowly and thoughtfully, "it means that when 
any question comes up in which State laws might run contrary to each other 
or go against what the Constitution says, or when a State might try to get 
the best of a citizen of another State, out of jealousy or spite or selfishness, 
then the Supreme Court steps in to decide things, and what it says is final." 

" Yes, that is about it," said Uncle Tom. " But these cases cover five 
classes of action : those that grow out of the Constitution, the laws, and the 
treaties of the United States ; those that have an international character and 
affect ambassadors, ministers, and consuls ; those that come under the navi- 
gation laws of the United States ; those in which the Republic is a ' party in 
action' on one side or the other; and those which grow out of troubles 
between States, between citizens of different States, and between citizens and 
foreign states." ^ 



98 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




ELIAS BOUDINOT, THE FIRST COUNSELOR 

ADMITTED TO PRACTISE IN THE 

SUPREME COURT. 



"And are there many such questions arising?" Roger inquired. 
"So many," repHed Uncle Tom, "that all branches of the Supreme 
Court are overtaxed, and to-day a man who carries a case to the Supreme 
Court has to wait three years before it can be reached for decision." 
" Gracious ! " said Jack. " That 's rough on the man." 

" And on the court, too," said Uncle Tom. 
" One of the great questions now is how to relieve 
the Supreme Court from this pressure of work." 

" How many branches of this court are there,. 
Uncle Tom?" asked Marian. 

"Well, let me see," said Uncle Tom, consider- 
ing. " First of all, there is the Supreme Court, 
itself It stands at the head of what is called our 
judiciary system. It has, as you know, a presiding 
chief justice and eight associate justices. It sits 
here in Washington ; but its work covers the 
whole nation. Then come the nine circuits into 
which the country is divided. Each of these cir- 
cuits, embracing a large section of territory, has a circuit court presided over 
by a circuit judge. These circuits are subdivided into districts, and in each 
district is a district court presided over by a district judge. There are now 
nearly sixty — fifty-six, I think — of these districts in the United States. 
So, you see, the Supreme Court, the nine circuit courts, and the fifty-six 
district courts form one great judicial system. They all deal with the same 
classes of cases. If the decision of the district 
court is not accepted, an appeal may be made 
to the circuit court, and, if this is not satisfactory, 
the case may be taken to the Supreme Court. 
There it must rest ; for from the decision of the 
Supreme Court there is no appeal." 

"Well!" exclaimed Marian. "Perhaps you 
boys can understand all that. I can't make head 
or tail of it." 

"Why, don't you see, Marian? It 's like this," 
said Christine, judicially. "You live in New York. 
Roger lives in Boston. He has something that 
you think belongs to you, and he won't give it 
up. You go to law to get it, and the district court says he can keep it. 
You don't like that ; so you ask the circuit court to help you, and the circuit 
court says the thing belongs to you. Roger does n't like that, and he appeals 




FISHKR .(^MES, THE FIRST ATTORNEY ."AD- 
MITTED TO PRACTISE IN THE SUPREME 
COURT. 



THE SUPREME COURT 



99 



to the Supreme Court to decide once for all whether it belongs to you or 
Roger. The Supreme Court says it belongs to Roger, and Roger keeps it." 

" And Marian gets left," said Jack. 

" Well, I think the Supreme Court would be very mean to take a boy's 
part against a girl," declared Marian. 

" It would be a question of right and not of courtesy, my dear," said 



I ,1 I |i 



I l|Vl 'I I I' Vi,''„„'lN' . ' '.', illJ 



I I 



I I 



,^^ 



' III ''" 'ii I I I' 1,1' 'ill 




SALMON P. CHASE, CHIEF JUSTICE OF TH K UNITED STATES, 1864-1873. 

Uncle Tom. " If the Supreme Court said the thing belonged to Roger, 
why, Roger would keep it." 

" I don't believe he would ; now, would you, Roger? " Marian protested. 
" You 're too much of a Qfentleman." 

" I don't think we 'd go to law about it, anyway, Marian," said Roger. 
" I should give it up to you right away, if I saw that you wanted it." 



LofC. 



lOO THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

"Just listen to that! " cried Jack. " Sir Galahad, Chevalier Bayard, and 
Sir Philip Sidney will please take back seats." 

"But was the way I put it the right way, Mr. Dunlap?" asked 
Christine. 

"In brief, yes, my dear," Uncle Tom answered. "Of course, there are 




ROGER B. TANEY, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES, 1836-1864. 

many details to be considered ; but, in effect, the word of the Supreme Court 
is final, and many of its decisions, even in what seemed little matters, have 
been really of the greatest importance and helped to make history." 

" I should think its judges would have to be the best men that could be 
found," said Bert. " How are they appointed?" 

"By the President — by and with the consent of the Senate," replied 
Uncle Tom. "They hold office 'during good behavior,' and can be de- 



THE SUPREME COURT 



lOI 



prived of their position only by impeachment. At seventy years of age 
they are 'retired,' as it is called." 

"That is, given a vacation for the rest of their lives," explained Jack. 

"That 's it," said Uncle Tom. "To be Chief Justice of the United 
States is the highest ambition possible to an American. It is the most hon- 
orable office in the gift of the American people." 

"Who was the greatest one?" asked Roger. 

" Chief Justice Marshall, I imagine," replied Uncle Tom. "He was a 
really great man. It was he who, as the great constitutional judge, raised 
the Government of the United States from an experiment to a success, and 
established it in the affections and confidence of the people. John Jay, John 
Rutledge, Oliver Ellsworth, John Marshall, Roger B. Taney, Salmon P. 
Chase, Morrison R. Waite, Melville W. Fuller — these are the men who, 
from the foundation of the Supreme Court in 1790, have been Chief Justices 
of the United States." 

"Only eight in over one hundred years," said Christine. "Some of 
them must have been there a long time." 

"Some were," said Uncle Tom. "Chief Justice Marshall served for 
thirty-four years ; Chief Justice Taney for 
twenty-eight. In fact, for the period of sixty- 
three years, from the days of President John 
Adams to those of President Abraham Lincoln, 
the great office of Chief Justice was filled by 
just these two men, each of whom lived to be 
very old men, but were always very useful, 
learned, and upright judges." 

" So you see, boys and girls," continued 
Uncle Tom, "the Supreme Court of the United 
States is a most important feature in our gov- 
ernmental system. It is the safeguard of the 
citizen, the last resort of the State, the balance- 
wheel of the nation. It is American in design, 
in conception, and in operation. Within its 
sphere its power is absolute ; but the Constitu- 
tion puts upon it such checks that it can never 

be tyrannical. It protects alike the greatest of the American States and the 
humblest of American citizens. From its mandates there is no appeal ; but 
those mandates can neither destroy the rights of States nor abridge the 
privileges of that local self-government that makes America free. Its decree 
is law; but that decree is not to establish the will of a judge, but to register 




DETAIL OF IONIC CAPITAL IN THE SUPREME 
COURT CHAMBER. 



I02 



fkE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



the will of the people. The Supreme Court is our explanation of how liberty 
can work according to law. 'Without it,' said Daniel Webster, 'the Con- 
stitution would be no constitution, the Government no government.' And 
Professor Bryce, the English writer on America, calls it ' the living voice of 
the Constitution.' Before its organization no nation had anything so wise, 
so just, so protective, so helpful. The noblest minds in America have been 
proud of its powers ; the most eminent of European thinkers have been en- 
thusiastic in its praise. Without it our nation might become a prey to 
jealousies, a victim to sectional disputes, and drift into disunion or anarchy. 
With it behind him every American knows that his liberties will be pro- 
tected, his interests guarded, his rights maintained. It embodies the wis- 
dom, the justice, the purity, and the power of all that is wise and just and 
pure and strong in American life. Indeed, as has been declared of it, the 
Supreme Court of the United States is the crowning marvel of the wonders 
wrought by the statesmanship of America. Come ; our lecture for the day 
is over. Let us go to luncheon, and then : All aboard for Mount Vernon ! " 




MOUNT VERNON — SOUTH FRONT. 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS 



A trip to Mount Vernon — The ''trolley'' ride to Alexandria — Who 
directs the ambassadors, generals, and commodores ? — The tourists 
visit and find out all about the three great depart7ne7its devoted to the 
business of the State, the Army, and the Navy — The Great Seal 
of the United States — West Point and An7iapolis. 




rp] 



*HE young people had a delightful trip 
to Mount Vernon. They sailed 
down the broad Potomac, as, sparkling 
in the bright spring sunshine, it flowed 
between the Maryland and Virginia slopes 
on its way to the broader Chesapeake. 
Every mile of this beautiful waterway 
reminded them of that great patriot whose 
name they all revered, and whose work 
seemed so linked with everything they 
had seen and studied. 

Here, as a boy, George Washington, 
coming from his Rappahannock home, 
had spent many a happy day. Here, a 
lad of the field and the farm, he had grown into that sturdy and stately man- 
hood that was so filled with greatness and glory. Here he had fished 
and hunted; here he had trapped and tramped; here he had "practised" as 
a young surveyor ; here lay the green acres of his broad plantation ; and here, 
between the trees, the boys and girls caught, at last, a glimpse of the com- 
fortable old Virginia mansion forever famous as the home of Washington. 

They climbed the hill from the boat-landing. They stood, awed and 
silent, before the modest tomb within which they saw the marble sarcophagus 
that holds the ashes of the great American. They talked with the old 
negro who guarded that sacred shrine — the last of the slaves of the Wash- 



THE OLD ENTRANCE TO MOUNT VERNON USED IN WASHINGTON'S TIME. 

( To-day the " trolley "for Alexandria starts from this gate.') 



I04 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




PORTRAIT OF MARTHA WASHINGTON. (FROM AN UNFINISHED PAINTING BV GILBERT STUART.) 



ingtons ; and then, touched and thrilled with all the memories that cluster 
about that most impressive spot, they walked on to the rambling old man- 
sion, with whose appearance every American is familiar, and whose 
broad portico, tall white pillars, and sloping roof are precious to every man 
and woman, every boy and girl in America, or wherever, in the wide world, 
live those who reverence greatness and love patriotism, virtue, integrity,, 
and nobility of soul. 



THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS 



105; 



They walked through that famous house, now so well cared for and 
kept in order by American women — the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association 
— and furnished in quaint, old colony style by the patriotism of American 
States and the affection of American school-children. Xhey looked, with 
strange sensations as to the apparent impossibility of the thing, upon the 
bed on which Washington died, and that little attic chamber in which his 
noble wife so soon after breathed her last. They saw Lafayette's gift tO' 




THE ROOM AT MOUNT VERNON IN WHICH WASHINGTON DIED. 



Washington — the key of the Bastille, that grim old prison of the French 
kings, destroyed by a long-suffering and liberty-desiring people ; they saw 
the harpsichord, or old-time piano, at which pretty Nellie Custis had cried 
through her practising and "shown off" before company; they looked into 
all the gate-guarded rooms of the mansion, fenced off from remorseless 
relic-hunters ; they ranged the whole house from the wide door-sill to the 
wasp-haunted cupola. Then they strolled about the grounds. They saw 
the old deer-park that bordered the river ; they looked at the spring-house 
on the slope ; they sent the wild rabbits scurrying before them in the under- 
growth of the Mount Vernon woods ; they looked, again and again, at the 



io6 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




THE HALL, MOUN I' VEKNON. 

(The key of the Bastille hangs on the -wall to the left.') 



beautiful river-view of which Washington was so fond, as he would pace 
his pillared portico, or check his horse on the hill. 

They passed to the rear — which was really the front of the house — 
where the broad lawn stretched off toward the highway ; they saw the old 
conservatory with its English gardens and its famous hedge of box ; they 
sat beneath the tree planted by Washington ; they peeped into the well- 
kept offices and outbuildings ; they puzzled out the sun-dial on the lawn ; 
they took a drink of milk at the buttery. 

Then, strolling to the old entrance to the estate, they took — "Great 
Edison ! " cried Jack, when the incongruity of the thing was thus forced 
upon him, "a trolley to Mount Vernon?" — they took the electric cars 
and whizzed across the Virginia fields, through buttercups and daisies, to 
famous old Alexandria, where Washington went to church, where Brad- 
dock had his headquarters, and where Ellsworth was killed in the early 
days of the Civil War. 

Thence they went by train to Washington, only six miles away. And 
as they crossed the famous Long Bridge that spans the Potomac, and over 



THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS 



107 



which so many thousand boys in blue had marched into Virginia and to 
death, Jack said : 

" Seems to me, Uncle Tom, all of our great Americans have been 
soldiers at some time. If ever there should be another war — " 

"Which God avert," said Uncle Tom, solemnly. 

" Of course I don't mean another civil war. Uncle Tom," explained Jack; 
" but a good old-fashioned war with some big bully of a foreigner — I 'd like 
to be a major-general." 

" Modest youth ! " said Uncle Tom. 

" I don't think you 're right. Jack," Bert declared. " It seems to me our 
greatest Americans have been statesmen like Jefferson, and Webster, and 
Marshall, and Clay, and Sumner, and Lincoln." 

"We 've had just as great men in the navy, too," said Roger, who 
dearly loved salt water. " I think it must be fine to be an admiral. Look 
at Perry, and Decatur, and Lawrence, and Farragut, and John Paul Jones." 




"here GEORGE WASHINGTON HAD 'PRACTISED' AS A YOUNG SURVEYOR." 



"Well, they all did their share," said Marian. "I think it would be 
as fine to be one as the other." 

" But somebody has to be behind statesmen, and generals, and admirals, 
I suppose, to tell them what to do," said Christine. "How are they all 
selected — ambassadors, and generals, and commodores, and all that — and 
told what to do ? Who has the directing of all these men, Mr. Dunlap ? " 



io8 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




THE HOME OF THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVV DEPARTMENTS. 



" I '11 show you to-morrow, young folks," said Uncle Tom. 

So it came to pass that, after breakfast the next morning. Uncle Tom 
guided his party up Pennsylvania Avenue, past the White House and the 
President's grounds. Then, turning into Fourteenth Street, they walked 
toward Executive Avenue and entered the southwest doorway of the mag- 
nificent building they had already visited the day they had hunted up the 
original Constitution. 

"This is the power-house for the machinery that runs ambassadors, gen- 



THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS IO9 

erals, and admirals," Uncle Tom announced. "This is the joint home of 
the State, War, and Navy Departments. Let us go in and investigate." 

They stepped into the elevator and, in the pleasant library of the State 
Department, they found again their friend the custodian. He greeted them 
pleasantly, and willingly showed them over the big building. 

In the State Department they studied Jefferson's original draft of the 
Declaration of Independence, with notes and corrections made by the hands 
of Franklin and Adams. 

They looked at the great seal of the United States, and inspected the 
strong steel safe, or " state-paper case," which is to be the resting-place and 
home of the great state papers of the nation until the separate and abso- 
lutely fireproof building which is in contemplation is ready to receive them. 
In this case, they were told, are to be kept the Declaration of Independence, 
the Constitution of the United States, Washington's commission as com- 
mander-in-chief, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Definitive Treaty 
of Peace with Great Britain, the Emancipation Proclamation, and other 
papers of equal value and importance. 

They visited the richly furnished offices of the Secretary of State and his 
chief assistants ; they saw the great and gorgeous reception-room in which 
the Secretary gives audience to foreign ambassadors and ministers ; they saw 
that repository of important official papers — the Bureau of Indexes and 
Archives ; they visited the Bureau of Rolls and Library, crammed with the 
correspondence of the founders of a nation. 

In like manner they roamed over the whole building. They saw the of- 
fices of the Secretaries of War and of the Navy ; they peeped into many of 
the special rooms occupied by the officials of these departments ; they saw the 
offices devoted to the use of the General of the Army, his aides-de-camp and 
staff, the portraits of all the secretaries of war and of all the commanders-in- 
chief of the army from Washington's day ; they even saw General Jackson's 
sword, and the bullet that killed President Lincoln. 

Roger lingered, with enthusiasm, about the splendid models of the new 
war-ships in the corridors of the Navy Department ; while in the central 
court of the War Department the boys and girls studied, with interest, the 
life-size figures that showed the military costumes of the Revolutionary 
army and of the regular army of to-day. 

There was, indeed, much to occupy the sight-seers in that palatial build- 
ing, with its four and a half acres of floor space, its two miles of corridors, 
and its five hundred and sixty rooms, in which three great departments of 
government carried on business. They were footsore and weary as they 
left the building by the wide north doorway ; and, crossing Pennsylvania 



THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS I I I 

Avenue, they sat down to rest in one of their favorite havens, beneath 
the wide- spreading trees of Lafayette Park, 

As he dropped upon the bench, Bert said, "Well, all that was worth 
seeing, was n't it? But I 've heard and seen so much that I don't know just 
how to check it all off Let 's see. Uncle Tom ; the State Department stands 
at the head of the Government bureaus, does n't it ? " 

"Yes, by age and custom," Uncle Tom replied, "though not absolutely 
by merit. The Department of State was not mentioned by name in the Con- 
stitution — in fact, none of the executive departments were. It was estab- 
lished by an act of Congress on the twenty-seventh of July, 1789, and was 
first called the Department of Foreign Affairs. In September of the same 
year the name was changed to the Department of State. Its chief officer is 
known as the Secretary of State, and he, as you know, is appointed, as are 
all the heads of these eight executive departments, by the President, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Secretary of State is not 
prime minister, as some people will tell you. Our nation recognizes no such 
officer." 

" But he is the President's chief adviser, is he not.'*" inquired Bert. 

"Well, he is so considered," Uncle Tom admitted, "and his position in 
the Cabinet is esteemed, what Jack might call, its ' plum.' He certainly 
occupies, by public consent, the place of greatest dignity and honor in the 
President's Cabinet ; he stands first in succession, in case of the deaths of 
the President and Vice-President; but he has no more to say than any of 
his colleagues." 

" But just what does he have to do in that grand office where we saw him 
sitting?" asked Marian. 

" He has many duties," her uncle replied. " Although the chief purpose 
of the Government of the United States is home development and protection, 
these depend very largely upon our relations with the other nations of the 
world. To conduct these relations properly is the business of the State De- 
partment. It is through the Secretary of State that our Government must 
communicate with foreign governments. Whether we make a treaty with 
the Queen of England or send our sympathies to France when her President 
dies, the communication must be prepared in the office of the Department of 
State and must be sent or signed by the Secretary. To look after our in- 
terests abroad, we have men called ambassadors, ministers, and consuls, at 
the courts or in the cities of foreign nations all over the world. The 
Secretary of State conducts all correspondence with these officials. In 
like manner, foreign governments have representatives living in the United 
States to look after their affairs here, and the Secretary of State is the 
only official through whom they can conduct official business. He is also 



I 12 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



the organ of communication between the President of the United States 
and the governors of the different States of our Union ; in his hands are 
placed the conduct and charge of all treaties with foreign nations ; he has 
the keeping, also, of all the laws made by Congress, after they have been 
approved by the President ; he issues or publishes all laws, resolutions, presi- 
dential proclamations, and treaties ; he records and issues to Americans who 
are going abroad the passport or certificate that all persons must carry to 
show that they are simply visitors and not dangerous persons." 

" We don't need such certificates of 
good behavior here, do we, Uncle Tom?" 
asked Jack. 

" No," replied his uncle. " The United 
States is a free country, and does not de- 
mand anything of visitors so long as they 
behave themselves. Besides these duties, 
the Secretary makes frequent reports to 
Conofress on our business connections with 
other countries and the opportunities for 
American enterprise abroad. He is also 
the keeper or custodian of the great seal 
of the United States, which is stamped 
upon all important civil communications, 
such as commissions or appointments of higher officials, executive proclama- 
tions, pardons, and so forth. A seal, you know, used to be the same as a 
signature when people did not know how to write ; to-day it means authority 
and consent. A document bearing the great seal of the United States, 
together with the signatures of the President and the Secretary of State, 
means that such document is the official act of the United States of Am- 
erica. You saw the seal in the State Department. Who can describe it ? " 
" I think I can," said Roger, slowly. "It is a spread eagle with the 
shield of the United States on his breast, in his right talon an olive branch, 
in his left a bunch of arrows ; above his head is a cloud-wreath encircling 
a sunburst in which are thirteen stars, and in his beak the eagle holds a 
scroll bearing our motto : £ pluribtis iinumr 

" Very good, Roger," said Uncle Tom ; " that is capitally described. And 
what does E phiribiis iiniim mean. Master Latin Scholar?" 

But before Bert could translate, the whole party exclaimed in chorus, 
*' Out of many, one ! " 

Bert, however, did not intend to lose all the glory of his classical infor- 
mation. 




THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES. 



THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS 



113 




*'TAPS." (cavalry bugler OF THE REGULAR ARMY IN FULL UNIFORM.) 

"That's from Virgil," he added. "Our Latin teacher told me so. It 
comes in a poem called ' Moretum,' and moretiim was a kind of soup the old 
Roman ' hayseeds ' used to make out of herbs and cheese well pounded 
together, and of which the poet said, 

' Color est in pluribus unus.' " 



" Good for Virgil ! " cried Jack. '' But say ; does n't that sound too 
much as if the United States were always in the soup ? " 

" Oh, Jack ! " exclaimed the girls ; and Uncle Tom protested, " Never, sir, 
never ! For our great seal signifies by its olive branch and its bunch of ar- 



THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS I 1 5 

rows the power of peace and war, vested in our Congress ; the thirteen stars 
in the sunburst stand for a new constellation or nation taking its place among 
the great powers of the earth ; the shield on the eagle's breast, with nothing 
else to support it or hold it in place, means that the United States of Amer- 
ica must rely for success solely upon its own virtue ; and the motto in the 
eagle's beak takes us out of Virgil's soup. Master Jack ; for, as Holmes says : 

'As well might the Judas of treason endeavor 

To write his black name on the disk of the sun, 
As try the bright star-wreath that binds us to sever, 
And blot the fair legend of Many in One.' " 

" Holmes against Virgil, every time," cried Jack. " I accept the amend- 
ment." 

" But what are the departments that the Secretary of State controls ? " 
asked Christine. 

"The Department of State is divided into seven bureaus," replied Uncle 
Tom. "These are: a diplomatic bureau, having charge of the correspon- 
dence with American ministers abroad ; a consular bureau, which communi- 
cates with the consulates of the United States ; a bureau of indexes and 
archives, which registers and indexes correspondence and preserves state 
papers ; a bureau of accounts, having charge of appropriations and funds, 
and the buildings and property of the department ; a bureau of rolls and 
library, that keeps all the rolls, treaties, laws, books, and documents." 

" That 's the room where our friend the custodian is engaged, is it not? ' 
asked Marian. 

"Yes," her uncle replied, and continued his enumeration: "A bureau of 
statistics to compile and furnish facts as to our commercial relations ; and 
a bureau of law for the investigation of claims against or by foreign nations, 
and other law questions that may arise in the business of the department." 

" My, though ! " said Marian ; " that is a good deal to do, after all. No 
wonder they keep so many clerks busy over there," and she waved her hand 
at the massive building of the State Department. 

" But there are other clerks there, too, you know, Marian," Christine re- 
minded her. " How is it with the War Department, Mr. Dunlap ? " 

" The Department of War was created by act of Congress on the seventh 
of August, 1789," replied Uncle Tom. "Its chief officer is called the Sec- 
retary of War, He has charge, under the direction of the President, of all 
our military affairs, and his department is divided into eleven bureaus, each 
under a chief who is an officer of the regular army." 



ii6 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



" But I should n't think they would have much to do in time of peace," 
Bert said. 

"To fight is not so much our duty as to guard against fighting," Uncle 
Tom replied. "And this is the meaning of many of the duties of the Sec- 
retary of War. He has the custody of all records relating to the army, to 
supplies, transportation and distribution of our soldiers' food, clothing, and 
equipments ; he looks after the signal service, that collects and transmits in- 
formation for the army by telegraph, telephone, or a code of signals. He 
also looks after the Military Academy at West Point, where they turn boys 

into army officers — " 

"That 's where I should like to go," said 
Jack, who had just been reading Captain King's 
"Cadet Days." 

" You 'd have to work hard enough there. 
Jack," said Roger, who also had read the story, 
and knew how the boys had to study and drill. 
" The Secretary of War also looks after the 
survey and improvement of all our rivers and 
harbors; he locates bridges over all navigable 
streams ; keeps our national cemeteries in good 
order and condition ; and keeps track of all the 
State Militia, though he has nothing to say as to 
their enlistment, drill, or direction. His chief 
officers are the Adjutant- General, who makes public all military orders of the 
Commander-in-Chief, looks after the army correspondence, enlistments, 
commissions, and army records, and reports on the strength and discipline 
of the army ; the Inspector- General, who looks after the condition of the 
army and its belongings and accounts; the Quartermaster-General, who 
looks after the houses, horses, equipments, stores and transportation of the 
army, and has charge of the soldiers' cemetery over there at Arlington, that we 
must visit, and the other national cemeteries; the Commissary-General, who 
looks after the food of the army ; the Surgeon-General, who looks after the 
health of the army ; the Paymaster-General, who pays the army ; the Chief of 
Engineers, who looks after our forts, bridges, surveys, and harbor and river 
improvements ; the Chief of Ordnance, who looks after the guns, swords, and 
weapons of the army ; the Chief Signal Officer, — who is ' Old Probabilities,' 
Marian ; the Chief of Records and Pension Office, who keeps all the records 
of the regular and volunteer armies and reports on pensions due retiring 
soldiers; and the Judge-Advocate-General, who looks after army trials and 
courts-martial and reports on questions of law. So, you see, there is a good 




HENRY KNOX, THE FIRST SECRETARY OF 

WAR AND Washington's favorite 

GENERAL. 



THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS 



117 



deal to do, both in war and peace ; for when I say the 
army, I mean all the matters and men that properly are 
under the control and direction of the Secretary of War." 

" You say the Secretary of War keeps track of all the 
State Militia, Uncle Tom," said Bert. " How many men 
have we in the militia." 

" The State Militia, sometimes called the National 
Guard," replied Uncle Tom, " has an organized force of 







SOME TYPES OF THE NATIONAL GUARD, STATE MILITIA. 



more than one hundred thousand men. Of these five thousand are cavalry, 
forty-eight hundred are light batteries, ninety-seven thousand are infantry, 
and the rest — over five thousand — include the general staff, signal corps, 
hospital and ambulance corps, naval brigade, and cadet corps. New York 



ii8 'the story of the government 

leads the list with twelve thousand National guards ; Idaho ranks lowest 
with two hundred." 

"And that other gentleman in the big building across the avenue," said 
Marian ; " what does he do ? " 

" What, the Secretary of the Navy ? " Uncle Tom queried. 

" Ah ! that 's my man," put in Roger, the lover of the sea, 

"Well, he is never much of a sailor. Roofer," said Uncle Tom, lauQrhingf. 
" You might think the head of the War Department a soldier, and that of 
the Navy Department a sailor. But they are not. Their business is neither 
to fieht nor to sail, but to direct those who know how to fiorht and sail. The 
Department of the Navy was a governmental afterthought. Up to 1 798, 
the naval affairs of the United States were controlled by the War Depart- 
ment. But on the thirtieth of April, i 798, an act of Congress created the 
Department of the Navy, with the Secretary of the Navy as its chief officer. 
He has the supervision of all matters connected with the naval establish- 
ment of the United States. The bureaus of his department are nine in all, 
and they look after: i, the building and good order of all United States 
docks and navy-yards ; 2, the equipment of war-vessels and the recruiting 
of seamen and marines ; 3, the supplying of war-vessels with rigging, stores, 
maps, charts, flags, lights, etc., the publication of charts and surveys, and the 
care of the naval observatory and chart-drawing office ; 4, the making of war 
material for use at sea, the arming of vessels, the trial of big guns, small 
arms, and torpedoes; 5, the building, fitting out, and repairing of vessels; 
6, the designing, running, and repairing of the marine engines and machinery 
that make our war-vessels go ; 7, the purchase and supply of food and clothing 
for the navy ; 8, the health of our gallant ' bluejackets,' and, 9, their punish- 
ment when they are bad. The men in charge of these bureaus are officers 
in the navy, not below the grade of captain, and they are expert sailors, even 
if the Secretary of the Navy is not." 

"Where are all the navy-yards, Mr. Dunlap?" asked Roger. "I have 
visited ours at Charlestown, and it is mightily interesting." 

" Yes, they are interesting," said Uncle Tom. " Let me see. There is 
a navy-yard here at Washington — 1 pointed it out to you yesterday, you re- 
member, as we sailed down to Mount Vernon ; it is also headquarters and 
ordnance yard. There is one at Brooklyn — " 

" I 've seen that," Jack broke in. "It was a busy place, I tell you, when 
they had the naval parade." 

"At Charlestown, in Massachusetts — " 

"That 's the one I saw," said Roger. 

"At Kittery, Maine, just below Portsmouth ; League Island, Pennsyl- 




A t KEAr !■. V\ \1 IILl O — \L> IIKAL }• \l(l M I T 
(bronze statue by AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS, IN MADISON SQUARE, NEW YORK CITY.) 



I20 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



vania, not far from Philadelphia; Norfolk, in Virginia; Pensacola, in Florida; 
and Mare Island, near San Francisco, in California. There is also a naval 
torpedo-station at Newport in Rhode Island." 

" And is there not a school for making midshipmen, just as there is a 
school for making: soldiers at West Point?" Christine asked. 

" Yes ; the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, not so far away 
from here," replied Uncle Tom. 

"When you goto West Point, Jack," said Roger, " I '11 go to Annapolis." 

"All right," Jack responded. " You '11 have to study quite as hard there 
as I shall at West Point. But the day we graduate, you and I will clasp 
hands and strike an attitude, and, while the girls here wave the star-spangled 
banner over us, we will all sing the chorus : 

'The army and navy forever, 
Three cheers for the red, white, and blue!'" 

"Which reminds me, boys and girls, of one other thing in our present 
line of talk," Uncle Tom announced. "The Secretary of the Navy is the 
official custodian of the flag of the United States." 

"Why is that?" asked Bert. 

"Well, I can't precisely say," his uncle replied. " Perhaps from the fact 
that the flag is more in use by naval vessels at sea or in foreign ports 
than it is on the land ; perhaps from the fact that the device of a flag bearing 
the stars and stripes came from the marine committee of the Continental 
Congress ; perhaps because of John Paul Jones and the victories of our flag 
at sea. But, from whatever cause, the Secretary of the Navy is the custo- 
dian of the national colors, and that, certainly, is a charge of honor and 
glory. Come, are you rested enough for another trip ? Let us go to 
lunch, and then. to Arlino^ton." 



n 



JKf^^k. 




THE DYNAMITE CRUISER "VESUVIUS." 



CHAPTER IX 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



The Soldiers Home — An old soldiers idea — A visit to the Treasury 
Department — How the Govei'-Jtment makes aiid spends tnoney — The 
Post Office Departm^ent — The Postmaster-General and his helpers — 
The children see the citriotis Dead Letter Office. 

^^7'HILE at lunch Uncle Tom changed his mind and his 
plans. Instead of the trip to Arlington, he gave his 
young people a pleasant ride through fields and woods 
to the Soldiers' Home in the northern suburbs of 
Washington. 

" You see," he explained, " we have just been study- 
ing the War Department, where they pull the wires that 
move the soldiers ; now we will visit one of the places 
where they put the old soldiers on the shelf, when their 
fighting-days are over." 

In a sightly spot stood the Soldiers' Home. " It was 
an old soldier's idea," Uncle Tom explained. "See! 
there he stands in bronze, — the hero of Lundy's Lane, 
the conqueror of Mexico," and Uncle Tom pointed to- 
the brow of the hill where stood the fine statue of 
General Winfield Scott. 
Jack took off his hat in salute. " He looks just as he must have ap- 
peared when President Jackson sent for him, does n't he?" said Jack. 
"When was that, Jack?" inquired Marian. 

"Why! don't you know," her brother responded — "at the time South 
Carolina braved 'Old Hickory' and threatened to go out of the Union? 
Then the hero of New Orleans called for the hero of Lundy's Lane. He 
smashed down his corn-cob pipe on the floor — why! it must have been in 
that very room in the White House that you showed us, Uncle Tom ! — and 
burst out, ' By the Eternal ! the Union must and shall be preserved. Send 
for General Scott ! ' " 




A QUEER THING FOR THE TREASURY 
DEPARTMENT TO LOOK AFTER. 



122 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



" Good for you, Jack ! you told that story well," said Uncle Tom. " Yes ; 
you did see the room in the White House in which Jackson smashed his pipe 
— and ' nullification.' The hero of Lundy's Lane became, you know, in 1847, 
the conqueror of Mexico. And it was from that' very campaign in Mexico 



that this Soldiers' Home re- 
money that Scott forced as, 
from the City of Mexico when 
in the Mexican War. The 
and forfeitures levied on the 
sides a tax of twelve 
to pay, whether they 
" I should n't think 




suited. For it was built with the 

what we call, an indemnity or fine 

he captured that old Aztec capital 

Home is maintained to-day by fines 

soldiers of the regular army, be- 

cents a month that they all have 

are good or bad." 

that would support it," said Roger. 

" Well, it might not seem to, 

at first," replied Uncle Tom, "but 

the accumulated fund is 

really a large one. Why, 

I remember to have 

heard that, a few years 

ago, the Government 

held more than a million 

dollars representing the 

forfeited pay of deserters 

from the army and the 

unclaimed money of dead 

soldiers. So, you see, 

the Home has quite a 

fund behind it." 

" Is n't the idea of this Home something like that big French building 

where they have the tomb of Napoleon ? " Bert inquired. 

" What ; the Hotel des Invalides, in Paris ? " said his uncle. " Yes, some- 
thing on that plan. It 's not a bad place for these six hundred old soldiers 
to live in, is.it? Just see what they have: this big marble building with its 
Norman tower, these beautiful cottages, — in that one over there President 
Lincoln used to spend his summers, — that stone chapel, the hospital, the li- 
brary, these many acres of hill and valley, and this splendid view ! See ! off 
there is the ever-present and always-beautiful dome of the Capitol ; and off 
this way — you can just see it, girls, a dim outline on the horizon — is the 
dome of Sugar Loaf Mountain in the Maryland hills, a good sixty miles 
away." 

It was, indeed, a beautiful situation and a superb view, and the tourists 







THE SOLDIERS HOME. 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



123 



left, after spending a pleasant afternoon, feeling glad, indeed, that the faithful 
old and invalid bluecoats had so fine, so comfortable, and so well kept a re- 
treat in which to spend their years of rest from active and honorable service. 

The next morning Uncle Tom took his party of investigators to a great 
granite building on Pennsylvania Avenue to the east of the White House. 

As they approached it Bert declared that it looked like some of the old 
Grecian temples of which he had seen pictures, and Uncle Tom told him 
that it was, in fact, a study in Grecian architecture, the east front being 
modeled after the temple of Minerva at Athens. 

" It costs a great deal of money to run the Government of the United 
States, boys and girls," he said, " and to provide us all with money of a gen- 
eral standard. We should be terribly mixed up if every State and city made 
its own money. Values could never be depended upon, and a national cur- 
rency is absolutely necessary. This is the building where our money is 
made, handled, and distributed to the people. Let us go in and study the 
Department of the Treasury." 

"There 's room enough here, I should think, to make lots of money," 
said Jack. " What a big building it is ! " 

It was a big building. The young people echoed the figures given them 
by the official who showed them 
around, with all that appreciation 
of bigness that young America 
delights in. TheTreasury Build- 
ing, he told them, was three 
hundred feet long by six hun- 
dred deep ; it had nearly three 
hundred rooms above its sub- 
basement, and it gave employ- 
ment to nearly thirty-five hun- 
dred people, without counting 
those employed in the mints 
and subtreasuries in other parts 
of the Union. 

" You will be interested to 
know, Jack," said Uncle Tom, 
" that your old hero. General 
Jackson, when President, is said 

to have marked out with his cane the size of this ereat buildine, and, strik- 
ing that cane into the earth, with his usual emphasis announced, ' Here ! 
right here, I want the corner-stone laid ! ' and there it was laid." 




THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT. 



124 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Well, Old Hickory had an eye for big things, had n't he?" said Jack. 

" Yes," replied their conductor; "but, big as it is, it is not large enough 
for Uncle Sam's money-chest, my boy. We are a great country, you know ; 
and to care for the money the country uses requires a great building. 
Even with all this to work in we are crowded for room. Already another 
big establishment has been built just below here on Fourteenth street for the 
use of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing ; and, some day, additions will 



^ 




THE GOVERNMENT BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING. 



have to be made to the Treasury Building itself, or separate ones built for 
the use of some of its departments." 

They found very much to interest them in this vast structure — "not so 
much the national storehouse as the national countina--house," Uncle Tom 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



125 



explained ; " for here," he said, " the business of casting up the Government's 
accounts and paying out the Government's money goes on." 

Under the conduct of their courteous guide the "tourists" visited the 
most interesting portions of the vast Treasury Building. They went from 




COUNTING AND EXAMINING SHEETS OF BILLS. 



the money-vaults in the basement to the document-room in the attic, and 
after that walked down Fourteenth street to " the Treasury annex " — the 
interesting and busy Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where bank-bills, 
government-bonds, and revenue-stamps are made. 

In fact, they saw so much in their tour of the Treasury Department, and 
their heads were so full of facts and figures, that Marian declared she was 
all ready to be folded up and filed away with the other public documents, 
tied with red tape and neatly labeled "What I know about making 
money." 

They peeped into the spacious offices of the Secretary of the Treasury; 



I 26 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



they inspected the portraits of dead and gone secretaries in the corridor 
(for no hving secretary is permitted to have his portrait displayed in the 
Treasury gallery) ; they saw, in what is called the Secret Service Depart- 
ment, the ingenious things done by people who try to rob or defraud the 
Government by making counterfeit money. 

They stood in the handsome bronze balcony and looked down into the 
splendid marble Cash Room, where a force of cashiers were paying out the 
people's money. They visited the Redemption Room, which Christine called 
a money hospital, because here the torn and worn-out bills were examined 
and counted before going to be "mashed up" into pulp in the room set 
apart for their destruction. 

They saw the Life-saving Service Department, from which is directed 




PRINTING SHEETS OF BILLS. 



that splendid corps of men who fight wind and wave to save the ship- 
wrecked sailors on lake-shore and sea-coast. They saw the great steel 
vaults that hold millions of money, and Roger actually held in his hand for 
a single moment one hundred thousand dollars ! 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



127 



" My ! would n't I like to own all that is in that building," Jack said 
as the tourists left it at last and turned down Pennsylvania Avenue. 

" Covetous already — eh, Jack ? " said Uncle Tom. " You '11 have to go 
home and read the tenth commandment, I fear." 




AT THE MACHINES FOR NUMBERING BILLS. 



'' And what good would all the money do you ? " asked philosophic Bert. 
"Too much is as great a bother as too little." 

" I 'd be wiUing to risk it," said Jack. 

" But it did seem to me," Christine declared, " as if that big Treasury 
Department was just full of detectives and guards against steaHng, from top 
to bottom. Why is it, Mr. Dunlap ? Is all the world dishonest ? " 

"By no means, my dear," Uncle Tom replied. "But one of the best 
ways to stay honest is to guard against temptation. Then, too, in all busi- 
ness offices, you know, checks and guards are needed, not so much against 
possible dishonesty as against carelessness and incorrectness. It is so in 
the Treasury Department. Carelessness could wreck the whole concern 
and seriously cripple the Government ; so the officials have to be on the 



128 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



watch all the time and hold every person employed to a strict account. 
Accuracy is as necessary as patriotism." 

"The Treasury is a very important department of the Government, is n't 
it, Uncle Tom ? " Marian asked. 




i\x> 



ONE OF THE STEEL-ENGRAVERS AT WORK. 



" As important as it is extensive," her uncle replied. " It was one of the 
earliest bureaus established, having been created by Act of Congress on the 
second of September, 1789. Alexander Hamilton, to whom, you remember, 
we owe the leading features of our Constitution, was the first Secretary 
of the Treasury." 

" I don't suppose it was a very big treasury as long ago as that," said 
Roger. 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



129 



"Just a little office with a few clerks," replied Uncle Tom. "But there 
Hamilton laid the foundation of our present vast financial system," 

"And it is a very responsible position now, is n't it — the Secretaryship 
of the Treasury?" queried Bert. 

"It is indeed," his uncle said. "The Secretary of the Treasury is the 
caretaker of the nation's money. He receives it ; he pays it out. He col- 
lects what is paid to the Government in taxes and customs." 

"Taxes are what we pay, and customs are what outsiders pay — is not 
that it, Mr. Dunlap ? " asked Roger. 




TREASURY CLERKS LEAVING THE TREASURY BUILDING AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY's WORK. 

"In brief, yes," replied Uncle Tom. "We pay a certain amount of 
money every year to run our Government; this we call taxes; an officer of 
the Treasury Department, known as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 
through his army of assistants, collects these taxes. Customs are the moneys 
paid by those who bring into the country goods from foreign lands. The 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



131 



officer in charo-e of this department of the Treasury is called the Commis- 
sioner of Customs. When the money from the taxes and customs is paid 
into the Treasury, it is placed in the care of an officer of the department, 
known as the Treasurer of the United States. He has charge of the money 




FIRING THE MORTAR- — U. S. LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. 



vaults and the Cash Room we have just seen, and he pays every bill, from 
the salary of the President to the national debt." 

" Just think what a lot of money he must handle ! " said Jack, still think- 
ing of the Treasury vaults. 

"And this money, as you have now seen," said Uncle Tom, "is in gold 
and silver or in bills." 

" But bills are not really money, are they ? " Roger asked. 

"No; they are, rather, promises to pay money, or orders on the Trea- 
sury for money," said Uncle Tom. 

"Why, is that so ? I thought bills were money!" cried Jack. 

" Just look at a bill and see," said Marian. 

So the boys stopped in the street and each one drew from his pocket 
a dollar bill for examination. 

"This reads," said Jack, "'The United States of America will pay to 
bearer one dollar in coin.' " 

"And mine says," Roger read, " 'This certifies that there has been de- 
posited in the Treasury of the United States one silver dollar payable to the 
bearer on demand.' " 



132 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




"Jack's is a Treasury note and Roger's is a silver 
certificate," explained Uncle Tom. " Never mind 
any more. Those show what I mean. Jack's 
dollar bill is a promise to pay; Roger's is an 
order to pay ; for both of them the Trea- 
sury Department must pay you coin if you 
present the paper at the Cash Room we 
looked down upon. The bills are engraved 
and printed in the Bureau of Engraving and 
Printing, which we visited ; the gold and 
silver are made at buildings called mints — " 
" From the Latin moneta, money," said 
Bert in a whisper to Marian. 

" — located at different points in the 
country. The head of this coin-making 
bureau is called the Director of the Mint ; 
the officer in charge of the making of bills is 
called the Comptroller of the Currency — " 
" Because bills are currency," ex- 
plained Jack. 

"Why?" asked Marian. 

Jack did n't know, and Bert informed 

her that when bills were held to be just 

as good as money, they were in what is 

called current use ; hence currency is 

whatever has general adoption and 

use ; and, though bank-bills were 

not coin, they were in current 

use the same as coin, and there- 

irrency. 

liat 's very good, Bert," 
said Uncle Tom, 
"and really tells 
the story. As 
you saw, how- 
ever, the Trea- 
sury Department 
has to do with 
other things be- 
sides making and 
collecting money. 



~5X 



ONE OF UNCLE SAM's LIGHTHOUSES. (IN CHARGE OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT.) 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



133 



It has to borrow when we are hard pressed, as we were in the Civil War, 
and thus run up what is known as the national debt — a debt the nation 
owed for money borrowed to carry on the war." 

"How much was it?" 
asked Jack, 

"Twenty-seven hundred 
million dollars," Uncle Tom 
told him. 

" Gracious ! " was all that 
the children could say. They 
really could not conceive the 
vastness of the sum. It was 
simply an immense figure to 
them. 

" To borrow this money 
the Government gave bonds, 
or pledges that the nation 
would pay back the sums 
borrowed, or give up its 
property to those who loaned 
the money. All these bonds 
were issued, and the pay- 
ment of the national debt 
attended to by the Treasury 
Department. As you saw, 
too, the department man- 
ages our lighthouses, our 
coast-surveys, and our rev- 
enue cutters ; it sees that 
all steamboats are properly 
and safely run, and it directs 
the life-saving service on our 
coasts." 

"That is very funny work for the Treasury to do," said Jack. 

" I should think those things belonged to the Navy Department," said 
Roger. 

"One would think so at first," said Uncle Tom; "but these matters 
really come under what is termed our revenue service, and that is in charee of 
the Department of the Treasury." 

"There are many other duties that belong to this important department 
of the Treasury," Uncle Tom added, as he stopped before a great square 




THE NIGHT PATROL — LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. 



134 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



building that looked like a vast Italian palace, " that I cannot now tell you of. 
But they all run in line with the management of the finances of the nation, 
and include such important matters as the management of the national debt. 

the national currency and coinage, the oversight and 
ofood care of the national banks, the internal revenue 
system, the customs and custom-houses, the mer- 
chant and passenger marine service, the lighthouse 
system of the country, the coast and land surveys, 
the inspection of steam vessels, the life-saving ser- 
vice, and the marine hospitals. So, you see, the 
Secretary of the Treasury and his army of assistants 
find enough to keep them busy, and they try to do 
the business of keeping the Government accounts in 
a businesslike way. Now, here 's the department 
that sells you a splendid steel engraving of George 
Washincrton for two cents. Let 's oo in and examine 
the place." 




there: that s done. 



"Oh, Uncle 
Tom, do let us buy a lot of those 
portraits, can't we ? " cried Marian. 
" Only two cents ? and are they really 
fine ! My, how cheap! " 

" Goosey ! " exclaimed Jack, with 
superior contempt. " You '11 feel 
cheaper, I guess. Don't you know 
that old chestnut of a joke ? Can't 
you buy a two-cent postage-stamp 
with Washington's head on it? This 
is the Post Office Department ; " and, 
laucrhine at Marian's discomfiture, 
the whole party climbed the wide 
steps and stood within the portals of 
the Post Office Department. 

" The department we are about to 
investigate," said Uncle Tom, as they 
entered the building, " is, to me, both 
unique and interesting. To you it 
seems but a simple thing to take a 

sheet of paper, write a line to a friend, fold the sheet, put it into an envelop, 
write your friend's address on the envelop, stick a postage-stamp on it, and 




"FOR YOU MEN IN GRAY UNIFORMS HAVE WALKED." 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



135 



drop it into the nearest mail-box, with the exclamation, ' There ! that 's 
done.' And when, before the week is out, the postman brings to your 
door an answer from your friend, five hundred miles away, you never think 
of it as a remarkable performance. And yet it is." 




THE U. S. POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. 



" Of course it is — to get an answer," said Jack. " The fellows I write to 
take more than a week ; eh, Roger ? " 

"Well, I don't know; I think I m a pretty prompt correspondent, 
Jack," replied the boy from Boston. 

>." The time between your dropping your letter in that mail-box and the 
moment the postman rings your door-bell and hands you the reply," Uncle 
Tom went on, "is filled with work done for you by the Government of the 
United States. For you men in gray uniforms have walked ; for you horses 
have galloped, locomotives puffed, and cars rolled. For you, men in your own 
city, and men in the city in which your friend lives, have labored day and 
night, in secret, behind closed doors, using locked boxes, locked bags, 
locked cars, and locked compartments — doing a public service in a private 
way, solely for your convenience, and at a cost to you of only two cents. 
And the power that does it all is this Post Office Department." 

" Has it always been so, Uncle Tom ? " Marian inquired. 

" Not with such excellent and reliable machinery," replied her uncle. 
''The Post Office Department was created by Congress on the 2 2d of Sep- 
tember, 1789. The head of the department — who is not called a secretary, 



136 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



you know, but the Postmaster- General — was not recognized as a cabinet 
officer and adviser of the President until Andrew Jackson's day." 

"My man, again," said Jack. " He was a 'hustler,' Old Hickory was." 

"The duties of the Postmaster- General," Uncle Tom went on, "include, 
in the directing of his department, the management of both the domestic and 
foreign mails, contracting for the transportation of the mails on land and 
sea, the manufacture, supply and sale of postal necessaries such as stamps 
and stationery, arranging postal treaties, under the President's direction, 
with foreign nations, appointing clerks and postmasters — " 

" I thought the President did that," said Bert. 

" The Postmaster-General appoints all postmasters whose salaries do 
not exceed one thousand dollars," Uncle Tom explained. " He also sees to 
the establishment and discontinuance of post-offices, the proper management 
of all offices, and the spending of the money appropriated by Congress for 
the postal service of the nation," 

"I don't see but that he has plenty to do," Bert said. "This handling 
of the mails is a big business. I never stopped to think of it before." 




A MAIL WAGON RECEIVING MAIL AT THE NEW YORK GENERAL POST-OFFICE. 



"We rarely think much about what has come to be a matter of course," 
said Uncle Tom, as they strolled leisurely through the corridors and hall- 
ways of the great building, reading the office and department signs, and 
peeping into one room and another, whenever it seemed proper or 
desirable. 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



137 




" Just think of what the Postmaster- 
General is chief," said Uncle Tom. " He 
has nearly seventy thousand post-offices to 
look after, doing a business that brings to 
the department an income of nearly eighty 
millions of dollars." 

" My, though ! I did n't know the Post Office 
Department was as rich as all that," Marian exclaimed, with a laugh. 

"Wait a bit, Marian," said Uncle Tom. "I did n't say it made that 
amount. The postal business of the country brings in nearly eighty millions 
of dollars each year, but it costs more than eighty millions a year to run it ; 
so, you see, it is not rich after all. It loses money every year." 

"Why, that is n't right," cried Jack. " It ought to come out square." 

"We are getting there gradually. Master Jack," his uncle explained. 
" For whereas the Post Office is now nearly self-supporting, in past years 
the business used to run way behind. It costs to do work well, you know. 
Why, last year it is estimated that more than four thousand million pieces 
of mail-matter were posted in this country — more than in Germany, France, 



138 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



and Austria put together. Think what that means in work and care ! There 
are over six hundred free dehvery offices in the country — that is, towns and 
cities in which the postman leaves your maH at your door without cost to 
you." 




INTERIOR OF GENERAL OFFICE — DEAD-LETTER DEPARTMENT. 



"Well, why should n't he?" said Jack. "Don't we pay taxes to be 
looked after ? " 

"We do, and some day there will no doubt be both free delivery and 
free postage throughout the Union," said Uncle Tom. " But even now it is 
a great advance over the work of fifty years ago. Time was when you had 
to go to the post-office yourself, even in large cities, or pay a penny for every 
letter brought to you from the office." 

"Why, yes," said Roger; "I remember my father telling stories of the 
time he was a boy, and the fun the fellows used to have with ' Mr. Badger 
the penny-post.' That must have been the man they used to have to pa)' a 
penny a letter to." 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



139 



"And I have seen letters," said Jack, " sent to my grandfather by his 
father when he was a boy that had .no postage-stamps and no envelops. 
They were just folded square, fastened with sealing-wax, directed and 
marked : ' postage one shilling.' " 

" Well, to effect all this change in postal rates, postal facilities, free and 
special delivery, railway mails, postal-cards, money-orders, and postal-notes 
(which, by the way, the Government has just given up making) has been the 
business of this Post Office Department whose home we are now visiting," 
said Uncle Tom. "The postal service really dates back to the time of the 
Roman Empire, but it is only within the past fifty years that it has become 
the people's service, and this progress America has undoubtedly led." 

" Hooray for us ! " cried Jack. 

"See; here is the office of the Postmaster- General," Uncle Tom an- 
nounced as they peeped into a finely furnished room. 

" Fine, is n't it? " said Roger. " But why 'general'? He is not an army 
officer." 

"The office of Postmaster- General," said Uncle Tom, "was form.erly a 
government monopoly in European kingdoms. In Austria it was the feudal 
property of a pri- 
vate family, carry- 
ing with it the title 
of oreneral, and the 
dignity was heredi- 
tary — that is, de- 
scended from father 
to son. So the title 
remained after the 
dignity was trans- 
ferred from private 
parties to govern- 
ment, and the di- 
rector of the de- 
partment in nearly 
all countries is call- 
ed the Postmaster- 
General." 

They passed rapidly by many pleasant and roomy offices. 

" These are the other departmental offices," explained Uncle Tom — "the 
four assistant Postmasters- General, the superintendent of foreign mails, and 
the chief of the money-order system." 



'h^ 




c^:^^ c>^^P^^^^^ ^^^i><^ 







THIS LETTER WAS SENT FROM SWEDEN AND FOUND THE OWNER AT SHELDON, ILLINOIS. 



140 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




TO MRS. LICY JACKSON, SPOTTSVLVANIA COURT-HOUSE, VIRGINIA. 



"What is that, Mr. Dunlap ? " Christine inquired. 

" The department handles money for the people who wish to send it 
from point to point. It would be unsafe to send real money in the mails ; 

for there are bad people 
who steal letters. So the 
Government takes your 
money and gives you an or- 
der on another post-office. 
This order you send to 
your correspondent and his 
post-office pays him the 
money when he presents 
the order. This is a very 
great convenience. To 
show how much it is used 
and appreciated I can tell 
you that last year there 
were sent in the mails, 
postal money-orders and postal-notes amounting to nearly one hundred 
and sixty millions of dollars. 

" And here," said Uncle Tom, climbing the stairs to a small gallery 
room, lined with cases like a museum, and bidding the children look down 
upon a floorful of busy people — 'Tiere is where carelessness is rewarded." 
"Rewarded? How?" cried Marian. 
"This is the Dead Letter Office," said Uncle Tom. 
"It does n't look very dead," said Roger. 

" No; it 's about the 'livest place in the whole building," Jack declared. 
"The letters are dead, not the office," explained Uncle Tom. "A letter 
which is misdirected, poorly directed, or not directed at all, or one on which 
the postage is not paid, or only what they call short-paid, is said to be 
'dead.' It is really not alive enough to travel to its proper destination. 
And so it is sent here for treatment." 

"The letter-hospital, is it not?" said Christine. "Are there many such 
pieces of carelessness ? " 

"Twenty thousand a day," Uncle Tom replied. 
" My-^^.^ are people as careless as that?" said Marian. 
"And some of the letters have money in them, I suppose," Bert sug- 
gested. 

" Nearly three millions of dollars in money, checks, and drafts came to 
this Dead Letter Office last year," said Uncle Tom. " Most of it, however, 



THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 



141 



was carefully traced and returned to its owners. Just look here," he added, 
turning to the museum cases. " See what queer things people send by 
mail. These things have all been taken from letters or mail parcels that 
found their way to this office." 

It was an odd display, indeed. There were rings and dolls and 
diamonds ; salad-oil, false teeth, and easter-eggs ; brandy, bowie-knives, 
and bibles ; hat-boxes, washboards, barbed wire, kid gloves, and playing- 
cards ; fans and pans and wedding-cake ; sea-shells, arsenic, and toys ; old 
coins, coffee-pots, stuffed birds, skulls, snakes, and babies' socks — it was a 
collection that made the children wonder, alike at people's odd fancies, at 
the carrying power of the United States Mail, and at the carelessness of the 
world in general. 

They saw, too, letters so poorly addressed that no one could make out 
who they were intended for ; one of them actually read : 

"The postmaster will please send this to my son out west who drives a 
yoke of red oxen and the railroad runs through his place." 

"Gracious, Roger!" cried Jack. "That beats the letter I got last 
year." 

" What letter was that. Jack ? " asked Roger. 




^^^^^-<i-^-^-..e^,^^ 










THIS LETTER WAS PROPERLY DELIVERED TO MR. FELDMAN, I79 LUTHERAN (ALLEY?), BUFFALO, N. Y. 



" Oh, yes, Mr. Innocence, you forget all about it, don't you?" Jack cried. 
"You remember it, Marian ? It was addressed in poetry — and there 's the 
fellow who sent it," he added, pointing to Roger. 

" Oh, yes, I remember it," cried Marian. " I do believe I know it by 



142 fHE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

heart. We all thought it was so cute. It was written up and down the 

envelop, and it said : 

' Hey, diddle, diddle ! 
Right in the middle 
Of New York City renowned, 
There lives a youth 
Of features couth, 
And skin not freckled but browned. 

* Mr. Postmaster bright. 
Please use all your might 
Young Jack Dunlap to discover; 
And if it is said 
The postage 's not paid — 
This letter you '11 please to turn over.' " 



"Good for Roger!" exclaimed Uncle Tom. "Why, you're quite a 
poet, and a clever one too — which is more than they all are, and I suppose 
the real address and the postage-stamp were there when the postmaster 
' turned over ' the letter ? " 

" Certainly they were," said Jack. " But the real direction was quite 
small and modest, so as to make sure that the poetical address should attract 
attention." 

" Well, the Post Office could tell many funny stories, if all its records 
and its doings were made public," said Uncle Tom. "Tired out, all of 
you ? " 

They were pretty well tired out with their morning tramp through two 
great departments ; so, coming out of the big Post Office Building, they 
stepped aboard the Pennsylvania Avenue "cables," and were soon speeding 
away to their hotel, for luncheon and rest. 





CHAPTER X 



THE DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE, OF THE INTERIOR, AND OF 

AGRICULTURE 

Uncle Tom preaches rest — He shows the tourists the A ttorney-GeneraTs 
Department — How the Government goes to law — What the Depart- 
fnent of the Interior is — The Depai^tment that attends to the weather 
and that helps the fai^mei^s — A trip to Arlington- — Christine repeats 
Lincoln s Getty sbttrg oratiojt. 

'N spite of their opposition, Uncle Tom prescribed for his 
tourists an afternoon of rest. 

They protested against this enforced idleness, but to no 
avail. 

" I am the Health Department of this expedition," he de- 
clared, " and I am not going to have you meet the fate of too 
many excursionists, who follow out a cut-and-dried plan of 
sight-seeing only to go home shattered wrecks." 

"Not much of a shattered wreck about me," Jack de- 
clared; "why, I could down any one of you in a foot-ball 
tackle now, or beat the whole team in a hundred-yard dash. 
Come, try me, Uncle Tom." 

But Uncle Tom remained firm ; so the girls rested in 
their room, and the boys took things easy in Uncle Tom's 
" council chamber," or sat in the comfortable chairs in the hotel reading-room 
and watched the passing people. 

Toward evening, Uncle Tom relaxed his guardianship and mounting the 
boys on bicycles, he took the girls in a carriage, and the whole party rode 
out to that picturesque region of rocks and woods and ravines where, in the 
broken and beautiful lands along Rock Creek, Congress has set aside a great 
tract of hill and valley for a future zoological garden and national park. 

The next morning was cloudy and wet, but nothing could dampen the 




144 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

ardor of investigation, and the tourists, well shod and protected, sallied out 
seeking new fields to conquer. 

Uncle Tom paused, first, before a handsome five-story building, on Penn- 
sylvania Avenue, opposite the Treasury. 

" This," he said, " is the Department of Justice. It is the ofiice of the 
Attorney- General, the law adviser of the President and a member of his 
Cabinet." 

" But I thought the Supreme Court was the law department of the Gov- 
ernment," said Bert. 

" Boy, boy ! " cried Jack, " much sight-seeing hath muddled thy massive 
brain. These gentlemen in this building fight things out for us in the Su- 
preme Court ; don't they. Uncle Tom?" 

"Yes, they do," said his uncle. "The Supreme Court is a branch of 
government ; this is a department. The Supreme Court expounds and de- 
cides ; the Department of Justice advises and pleads. They are in no way 
related to each other. The office of Attorney- General dates back to the 
Act of Congress creating the office on the twenty-fourth of September, 1789; 
but the creation of the office into an executive department was not effected 
until 1870. At that time all the officers who, under the law, conducted the 
legal business of the Government, were united under a special head in this 
Department of Justice, and the Attorney-General was made its official chief." 

" And he, you say, is the President's lawyer, is he ? " asked Roger. 

" In a general way, yes," Uncle Tom replied. " He is a member of the 
Cabinet, he advises the President on all legal questions that arise in the ad- 
ministration of the laws, and he gives advice and opinions to the heads of the 
other departments when requested. You see, a great government has no 
call to be a tyrant; it must act cautiously if it wishes to serve the people who 
live under it; it tries to follow Davy Crockett's advice — " 

" Member of Congress from Tennessee and hero of the Alamo? " queried 
Jack. 

"That 's the man; one of the most eccentric and picturesque figures in 
American history," replied Uncle Tom. "And his advice was, 'Be sure 
you 're right: then go ahead.' That is what the United States wishes to do ; 
hence we have this Department of Justice. So the Attorney- General is 
called upon for advice before action ; he sees that the lands belonging to the 
nation have what is called 'clear titles' — that is, that the Government is 
really the owner ; and he appears in person or by one of his subordinates on 
behalf of the Government when any question in dispute, to which it is a party, 
is brought into the courts for trial." 

" Why, does the Government ever go to law ? " asked Roger. 



DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE, OF THE INTERIOR, AND OF AGRICULTURE 1 45 

" Very often," replied Uncle Tom. " The United States against Richard 
Roe is a frequent case in court, and the Attorney- General, or one of his 
associates, has to appear in court, to plead in behalf of the nation. This is, 
especially, the duty of those lawyers all over the land whom you have, per- 
haps, heard of as United States District Attorneys. They serve in a certain 
district, set apart by law. They represent the Government in all cases in 




THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. 



which the United States is a party in action. They conduct civil cases 
which the United States either brings or defends, and they prosecute all 
offenders against the laws of the United States." 

" Oh, yes — the District Attorney ! I 've read about him in murder trials," 

Jack proclaimed. " He 's the fellow who always tries to hang the murderer." 

" Oh, Jack! you don't read those dreadful things, do you ?" cried Christine, 

"Why not?" said Jack. "It is the duty of every American, my dear 

child, to be up in all the questions of the day," he added, with quite the air 

of a patriarch. 

"Very good, Jack," said Uftcle Tom; "but you are confounding the 
State and the United States District Attorneys, The latter appear as 
prosecutors only in crimes against the United States; and murder — except 
upon the high seas — is a state rather than a national offence," 

They continued their brisk walk down the avenue, and then Uncle Tom 
turned with his party into Seventh street and paused where a great portico, 
that reminded classical Bert of the famous Parthenon at Athens, gave en- 
trance to a plain but noble-looking building, 

"This," said Uncle Tom, " is the Department of the Interior." 

"That 's a funny name," said Jack. " Interior of what ? " 

" Why, the interior of the nation, Master Jack. It is what is known in 



146 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

England as the Home Department. It means the department in charge of 
the internal affairs of the nation." 

They entered the great granite building. 

" This used to be known as the Patent Office," said Uncle Tom, "because 
this whole first floor was used as an exhibition hall for the display of the 
models made by inventors who ask from the Government what is called pat- 
ent rights, or the right to sole ownership in the machine or device they have 
invented." 

" That 's men like Edison, Morse, Howe, Whitney, Ericsson, and lots of 
other fellows who get up things to do something ? " asked Roger. 

" But, why should n't they have sole ownership? " asked Jack. 

"They should certainly," replied his uncle, "but unless they show that 
they really did invent it, some one else might try to do the same thing and 
then no one could tell who should profit by it. The Patent Office was 
established to give the right of possession to the one who puts in undeniable 
proof of invention." 

" But this is not the Patent Office now, you say ? " Marian inquired. 

"No; the old exhibition hall that I remember, with its forest of tinted 
columns and arches and its floor of white marble, is a thing of the past," 
responded her uncle. " The business of the Interior Department has 
crowded out the models. They are now in temporary occupation of the 
upper portion of the Washington Post Office Building, awaiting the com- 
pletion of the grand new District Post Office farther up the avenue ; and 
this big building is now, really, the Interior Department." 

"And what is attended to in this building now that the models of patents 
have been removed ? " asked Bert. 

" Look about you and see," his uncle returned. " The old hall of arches 
familiar to me has been partitioned off into a whole swarm of offices." 

They walked hastily through the building, glancing here and there, 
reading the names of the bureaus and divisions that crowded the Depart- 
ment Building, Into some offices they glanced, others they entered, some 
they passed with just a look ; and as they left the building and walked 
briskly toward its most extensive annex — the unique Pension Building — 
Uncle Tom discoursed upon the Department of the Interior. 

"The Department of the Interior," he said, "meaning, as I told you, the 
department in charge of the internal affairs of the nation, was created by 
Act of Congress on the third of March, 1849. Previous to that time the 
affairs it now controls were in charge of the other departments. The 
Secretary of State looked after patents, copyrights, the census, and the 
public documents ; the Secretary of the Treasury had charge of public lands. 



DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE, OF THE INTERIOR, AND OF AGRICULTURE I47 




SAMUEL F. B. MORSE, INVENTOR OF Tl! 



mines, and mining ; the Secretary of War looked after the Indians ; and the 
pensions or payments to disabled soldiers and sailors were in charge of 
the Secretaries of War and of the Navy. In 1849 these matters were all 
grouped together and placed in charge of a new department, called the De- 
partment of the Interior ; a Secretary was placed in command, and to its 
business were added, later, the Bureau of Education, the oversight of rail- 
roads, the geological surveys, the national parks (such as the Yellowstone 
and the Yosemite), the affairs of the Territories, the Interstate Commerce 
Commission, and the Department of Labor." 

"Well," said Bert, "seems to me the Secretary of the Interior has a 
regular jumble of things to look after." 

" Looks as if he were a national Jack-of-all-trades," was Jack's comment. 



148 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



" Yes, it does seem as if his business is to do everything that nobody 
else looks after," said Uncle Tom. " But some of these are very important. 
Every ten years, you know, he has to 'count noses,' to see how many 




ELI WHITNE\, INVENTOR OF THE COTTON-GIN, PATENTED IN 1793. 



people live in the United States, find out what they are doing, and how 
the country is growing. This is called ' taking the census.' " 

" From censco, to count," said Bert, the Latin scholar. 

" I reckon," put in Jack, the punster. 

"Then, too," continued Uncle Tom, "he has to take care of the public 



DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE, OF THE INTERIOR, AND OF AGRICULTURE 149 

lands. There is a great deal of unoccupied and unsettled land in the West 
that belongs to the nation. To any one who will settle on these lands and 
turn them into homes the Government gives one hundred and sixty acres — 
called a homestead — -without charge, only stipulating that the man or woman 
to whom this tract is given (and called from this a 'homesteader') shall 
build a house upon it and live there at least five years." 

"That 's liberal enough," said Jack. 

" But I should think all the land must be given away by this time," said 
Christine. 

"Oh, no," Uncle Tom answered; "we are a big country and there is 
yet a great amount of land not occupied. There is plenty of chance for an 
American citizen to get a home for nothing, if he has only pluck and push 
enough to go West and make one for himself" 

" ' And Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm,' " 

hummed Jack. 

" One of the most important duties of the Secretary of the Interior," said 
Uncle Tom, "is the care of the Indians." 

"The wards of the nation — is n't that what somebody calls them?" 
queried Bert. 

"Yes, they are that, in a certain sense," his uncle answered. "Some- 
times the nation has been a most unwise and reckless guardian, and the 
Indian question was for a time quite a problem. But we are doing things 
better now, and some day the Indians will, I hope, be as good citizens as 
will be the other peculiar people who find homes within our borders. Then, 
too, the Government sells land for development, at low rates ; it gives away, 
or grants, as it is termed, tracts of land to States and towns for public pur- 
poses ; and, in order to open up new lands, it grants many acres of land to 
railroad companies who will build a line of railway in the new section. The 
management of this land business and the laying out or survey of the land 
thus opened up to settlement are in charge of the Secretary of the Interior. 
He also directs the explorers who go out to trace the rivers, measure the 
mountains, locate and test the mines and report upon the geological, scien- 
tific, and practical value of the hitherto unknown sections of our country. 
He looks after the printing and distribution of the annual reports of all the 
Departments of the Government ; he superintends, as I have told you, the 
patent business of the country, so that inventors can have their rights and 
help on the progress of the nation ; he collects and distributes, in what is 
called the Bureau of Education, a great mass of valuable information in 



DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE, OF THE INTERIOR, AND OF AGRICULTURE I5I 

relation to schools and education in the United States; he gets together for 
the information and use of the people facts as to the condition and progress 
of labor in the land, and, in this big building we are now approaching, he 
makes up the accounts and distributes each year, in what are called pensions, 
monthly payments to those soldiers or sailors who have been hurt while 
fighting the battles of the nation, or to the widows and orphans of those 
Avho have died in its defense on land and sea." 

"Well, he does have his hands full," said Marian; and then Uncle Tom 
and his party walked through the big Pension Building — a curious shell of 
a building, almost barn-like outside and a vast open court within. 

'' Why, it 's more space than contents, is n't it?" said Christine, as they all 
stood by the central fountain and got, each of them, a "crick in the neck" 
trying to study the high iron roof and the encircling galleries. 

" It does seem something like a spendthrift of a building with its vast 
waste space and its acres of air," said Uncle Tom. " But it is a departure 
from the Grecian temple style of most of the public buildings here, and so 
gives to their architecture that variety which is said to be the spice of life." 

Then Uncle Tom looked at his watch. 

" We have still time for the remaining department," he said, and crowd- 
ing his company into a herdic he rode with them past the green spaces about 
the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum and stopped at the 
entrance to the Agricultural Grounds. 

They visited, first, the attractive- 
looking brick building standing in 
the midst of its o-ardens, built for and 
occupied by the Department of Agri- 
culture. 

"This, too, you see, is, like the 
Pension Office," said Uncle Tom, "a 
rather pleasant relief from the Grecian 
temple style of the other Government 
Buildings. It is said to be modeled, 
in design, after the palace of the French 
kings at Versailles when that famous 
building was a hunting chateau rather than the splendid palace it became 
in later years. And here the latest created department has its home." 

"What is it, and what does it do ?" inquired Bert. 

" It is the Department of Agriculture," said his uncle. " It grew out of a 
gradually increasing demand that was occasioned by the development of 
practical and scientific farming in this country. Nearly every State in the 




A CORNER OF THE AGKIClLTrKAL 



152 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT, 

Union has now what is called an Agricultural Collesre where the science of 
farming is systematically taught. The Government, to develop this branch 
of useful information, created by Act of Congress, on the eleventh of Feb- 
ruary, 1889, the Department of Agriculture, and placed at its head the 
Secretary of Agriculture." 

" He must be 'some pumpkins' then, I suppose," said Jack. 

"Well, he has some really important duties," replied Uncle Tom, ignor- 
ing and yet answering Jack's rather flippant comment. "His duty is to 
collect and diffuse useful information on subjects connected with agricul- 
ture ; he acquires and preserves all attainable, information by means of 
books and correspondence, by practical and scientific experiments and by 
the collection of statistics, and of new and valuable seeds and plants ; he 
cultivates and propagates such as may require a test or seem worthy of 
propagation, and he distributes both information and seeds among farmers,, 
fruit-growers, and agriculturists." 

" I call that valuable work," said Roger, 

"It is, Roger," Uncle Tom answered. "Agriculture is as necessary to 
the development of a nation as art. It is more desirable than statecraft, 
more noble than war, more lasting than internal improvements, more pro- 
ductive than law ; for upon it both the welfare and subsistence of a nation 
depend. To me, this new department is full of interest and promise. 
Here; the museum will interest you most. Let us go in and examine it." 

The large and well-arranged museum attached to the department did 
interest them. The boys and girls spent a pleasant hour visiting and in- 
specting it. They saw all it contained — from giant pumpkins to gipsy 
moths, and from sections of native trees to silk-worm culture, and the 
habits of prairie-dogs. They visited the arboretum and the plant houses ; 
they brought away some choice seeds for planting, and learned that the 
divisions of the department included the Weather Bureau, the Statistician, 
the Entomologist, the Botanist, the Chemist, the Microscopist, the Propagat- 
ing and Seed Division, the Bureau of Animal Industry, the Forestry and 
Ornithological Division, Irrigation and Road Inquiry, Pomology and Vege- 
table Pathology, and the Office of Experiment. 

" Gracious ! " cried Jack, " big names enough to cultivate and propagate 
and vegetate and irrigate and agitate the whole country, are n't there ? " 

" I like this, though," said Marian, as she wandered among the flower- 
beds, admiring, inhaling, exclaiming. "It makes you think of the country 
and the spring flower-shows, does n't it ? " 

" I like it, too," said Jack ; " it 's such a capital place for growing girls 
and boys. Can't they put us in the Agricultural Museum, don't you think, 



154 



T«E STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



Uncle Tom, as healthy specimens of what the nation can raise?" and he 
stretched himself to his full height and worked his muscular arms with all 
the pride and assurance of a well-developed young athlete. 

The rest of the party laughed at his fun and at what Bert called his 
" physical culture" ; then Marian asked, "Well, where do we go now, Uncle 
Tom ? " 

" Now we go to luncheon, my dear," returned her uncle, glancing at his 
watch. "After that, if the weather is promising, we will ride to Arlington." 

The weather did prove promising, much to the tourists' satisfaction. 
The lowering morning gave place to a brilliant afternoon, and Uncle Tom 
and his party, all in high spirits, filling the comfortable wagonette, drove 
through Georgetown to the Aqueduct Bridge and across the flashing 
Potomac to the heights of Arlington. 

" You have studied our Government and its departments," said Uncle 
Tom ; " you have, at least, gained an idea of the great truth our nation 
stands for, and the strength it has attained. You, no doubt, are ready to 
swing your caps and proclaim, with all the vigor of healthy young lungs, 




'THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD." SOLDIERS* GRAVES IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY, ARLINGTON. 



the ability of the United States of America to prove to the world the mean- 
ing and glory of liberty." 

"We are; we are!" cried Jack, enthusiastically; "and liberty with a 
capital L, too." 

" But do you know, boys and girls, through how much of struggle that 
ability has been attained ? " Uncle Tom said, with more than usual solem- 



DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE, OF THE INTERIOR, AND OF AGRICULTURE 1 55 

nity in his voice. " Do you know that Hberty can come only through loss, 
and progress only through pain ? Here, at Arlington, we are to see how 
the nation honors the memories and shrines the bones of those who, by 
loss and pain, secured the liberty we enjoy." 

They rode through the woods and up the slope to the shaded crest 
of the hill on which stand the barracks and quarters of Fort Myer, and 
so on, past the cavalry-practice fields, to the gateways of Arlington. 

" Why, it is just a big graveyard, is n't it — like Greenwood and Mount 
Auburn," said Christine, who really had not given thought to the purpose 
of the place they were to visit. 

" Yes, my dear," replied Uncle Tom, "Arlington is one of the National 
Cemeteries devoted to the sacred care of the nation's dead." 

"Then there are more than this one? How many. Uncle Tom?" Bert 
inquired, 

" More than one, Bert ! Why, there are eighty-two of these National Cem- 
eteries, in which are buried nearly three hundred and thirty-two thousand of 
the nation's dead," his uncle answered. " But, to my mind, this cemetery of 
Arlington and the one at Gettysburg are the most interesting and impressive." 

They drove up the broad roadway between forests of shafts on the left 
and a seemingly countless array of low granite headstones on the right. At 
the great amphitheater they left their carriage. 

"What does it say on that bronze tablet, Bert?" said Roger. "There 
are lots of them along the borders of the drive." 

"It says — wh)', look here. Jack!" exclaimed Bert, "it is part of that 
piece you spoke at school last Decoration Day." 

Jack inspected the low bronze tablet. " Sure enough ; so it is," he said. 
"That splendid poem by O'Hara, don't you know." 

" It is a splendid one, indeed, Jack," Uncle Tom assented. " Can't you 
repeat it for us, here, where it is so appropriate ? " 

Then, standing on the grassy plain of the column-bordered amphitheater, 
where older orators had spoken glowing words, Jack, with his usual facility 
at " elocuting," as the boys called it, recited part of O'Hara's noble lines 
perpetuated so many times in bronze along the driveways of Arlington : 

" The muflfled drum's sad roll has beat 

The soldier's last tattoo ! 
No more on life's parade shall meet 

That brave and fallen few. 
On Fame's eternal camping-ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
And glory guards with solemn round 

The Bivouac of the Dead. 



156 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

" No rumor of the foe's advance 

Now swells upon the wind; 
No troubled thought at midnight haunts 

Of loved ones left behind ; 
No vision of the morrow's strife 

The warrior's dream alarms; 
No braying horn nor screaming fife 

At dawn shall call to arms. 

"The neighing troop, the flashing blade, 

The bugle's stirring blast, 
The charge, the dreadful cannonade, 

The din and shout are past. 
Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, 

Nor Time's remorseless doom 
Shall dim one ray of holy light 

That gilds their glorious tomb. 

" Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead. 

Dear as the blood ye gave; 
No impious footsteps here shall tread 

The herbage of your grave. 
Nor shall your glory be forgot 

While Fame her record keeps. 
Or Honor points the hallowed spot 

Where Valor proudly sleeps." 

For a moment no one spoke. Then they walked slowly up the path to 
the old mansion, touched at once by the beauty of the spot and the deep 
significance of its purpose. 

Standing upon the great portico of that historic house, they looked — at 
first speechless with admiration, then vocal with little exclamations of delight 
— upon the famous panorama spread before them — Washington city, the 
Potomac, the monument, and the dome, seen from the heights of Arlington, 

" Oh ! is it not beautiful ? " said Christine. 

"It is indeed," said Uncle Tom. "This is a view that never wearies, 
and yet, do you know, boys and girls, the sentiment of this spot is, for me, 
more impressive than its situation. Here you are standing on the portico 
of one of the noblest specimens of a Virginia manor-house of a century ago. 
Beside these tall white pillars great men have gathered and looked upon 
this same view that so holds us in admiration. To this spot came Washing- 
ton, while yet the old manor-house stood near by ; this mansion was built 
by George Washington Custis, Martha Washington's grand-son ; here, in his 
old age, came Lafayette, filled with tender memories of the patriot who 



DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE, OF THE INTERIOR, AND OF AGRICULTURE 1 57 




had been almost a father to him, and here, until the opening of the Civil 
War, lived the Lees, descendants of Custis the builder. From its doors went 
General Robert Lee to assume command of the Confederate forces, and to its 
doors came the advance of that army of deliverers who marched to the defense 
of Washington. During 
the war it was camp, head- 
quarters, and hospital ; 
and, in 1864, the property 
was purchased by the 
United States for its pres- 
ent use. How well it 
has been cared for, and 
how largely Arlington 
has been used, these 
neatly trimmed terraces, 
these green lawns, these 
flower-beds, these splen- 
did trees and these shafts 
and headstones testify. 
See ! here, almost at our 
feet, rest those great 

heroes of the Civil War — Sheridan the general and Porter the admiral. All 
about us you may read names made famous in the great struggle for the 
Union, and out yoiider, where the shaded grounds stretch away toward Fort 
McPherson, are camped, in what O'Hara called ' the bivouac of the dead,' 
twenty thousand private soldiers, victims of battle-field and hospital. Do 
you see that round summer-house, rather grandiloquently styled the Tem- 
ple of Fame, there by the Amphitheater, blazoned with the world-famous 
names of Washington, Lincoln, Grant, and Farragut ? In that great granite 
sarcophagus, close beside it, are gathered the bones of twenty- two hun- 
dred and eleven ' unknown dead ' — men who had as much ambition, as 
much at stake, as much to live for, as much to die for as Washington, Lin- 
coln, Grant, and Farragut. 

" It is these things, boys and girls," continued Uncle Tom, gathering his 
little congregation about him, "that touch me deeply and prompt me to try 
to make you restless young people see how great a boon is liberty, and how 
men have been willing- to fig-ht for it and die for it that their children — that 
you, boys and girls, may live in comfort and security beneath the folds of the 
beautiful flag that flies as the symbol of liberty and union. Whenever I 
look at that casket of unknown dead, shaded by the so-called Temple of 



ARLINGTON HOUSE, NOW IN THE NATIONAL CEMETERY. 



158 THE •STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

Fame, I think of the words of one of the great writers of the world : ' By 
their stripes we are healed; by their deaths we have lived.' " 

"We do feel it; I am sure we do, Mr. Dunlap," Christine said solemnly, 
and Jack, as quick to be touched by sentiment as moved to mirth, exclaimed 
with boyish emphasis, "Why, of course we do, Uncle Tom. You older 
folks think that we boys and girls are just up for fun and nothing else. But 
I tell you we think of these things too, and we know that what we enjoy 
to-day, and all that that white dome over the river stands for, are what they 
are because all these men who lie about us here marched away from their 
homes to fight and to die more than thirty years ago." 

Uncle Tom dropped his hand affectionately on Jack's shoulder. 

" I believe you do, my boy; I believe you do. And never, never forget 
it," he said. 

&(ru/)r ^i<.t<>0 ctyi'y^^u ^^.^/^Aenv Aj^^^tyb/ ^"t^ ^xev>^::^^^ 



DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE, OF THE INTERIOR, AND OF AGRICULTURE 1 59 
£,^ctib i^y^-^ Q.&y^ ryL-ftP e£r>>Ajzu5^%:S^^ — ux-^ ca.'v^ OuH^ 

(h-Qyu-e^ .J^n.peV' U^''^^ o£crAf^^^ 



%jU/y*^oC^ ^^tdJ^ /.'^^jsJ^ /^^&A/-4i> c<^ (hOA^^f /ut'y^^ a^JZujy 
Ar ^^ /U«^4^^ ^v >^^ iLe^«<^ /-^^t£^ (h4fC-AA^ 

FACSIMILE OF THE STANDARD VERSION OF LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. 
Copied by Mr. Lincoln for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Fair, held in Baltimore in 1864. 

" Somehow, it makes me think of Lincoln and that speech of his at 
Gettysburg," said Christine. 

" You spoke that at school on Decoration Day, too, did n't you, Chris- 
tine?" said Marian. 



i6o 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Did you?" said Uncle Tom. "That marvelous speech? Recite it 
for us, Christine — here, right here — within sight of the city where Lincoln 
lived and labored ; here, amid the graves of those he called to battle for the 
Union." 

And Christine, a simple figure in her dark traveling-gown, standing out 
in relief against one of the great white columns of historic Arlington House, 
gave, quietly, modestly, but so sincerely and effectively that Uncle Tom's 
eyes grew misty and the tourists all stood hushed and silent, that brief but 
wonderful Gettysburg speech that is one of the brightest memorials left the 
Avorld of the great martyr-president : 

" Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, 
conceived in Hberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we 
are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so 
dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to 
dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that 
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger 
sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The 
brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to 
add or detract. 

" The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget 
what tliey did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work 
which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here 
dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take in- 
creased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we 
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, 
shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the 
people, shall not perish from the earth." 



Then they all rode back to Washington, impressed with 
what they had seen at Arlington and proud of their privileges 
as sons and daughters of the American Republic. 



\ — ^ ' 





i,flW «^' 




CONSECRATION OF THE GETTYSBURG CEMETERY, NOVEMBER I9, 18 

The gathering that President Uncoln addressed. 



CHAPTER XI 



THE OFFICE-HOLDER 



An army of workers — Women in the departments — How men and 
women are selected to work for tJie Govejmment — The Civil Service 
Commissioji — A talk 07i patriotism. 

THEY were talking that evening, in Uncle Tom's "coun- 
cil chamber," of all they had heard and seen that day, 
alike amid the buzz of the departments and the still- 
ness of Arlington. And, as now statistics and now senti- 
ment would be uppermost in the conversation, Bert, with 
a mind bent on learning details, inquired : 

" How many office-holders are there, Uncle Tom? " 
" Under the United States Government, I suppose you 
mean — and in all branches of its service ? " observed his 
uncle. 

" Yes, sir," said Bert. 

" Oh, there 's a regular army of them," Uncle Tom 
asserted. "Let me see — I should say fully two hundred 
thousand ; though it must be explained that considerably 
more than half that number are employed in the postal 
service of the United States." 

" As many as that ! " exclaimed Roger. 
"Why, yes," replied Uncle Tom; "you must remem- 
ber that there are nearly seventy thousand post-offices 
in the United States ; knowing that, it will not take you 
long to use up at least one hundred and twenty thousand of the two hundred 
thousand government positions. The eighty thousand that remain are dis- 
tributed among the other branches of the service." 

"That, of course, does n't include the army and navy," said Jack. 
" No," his uncle replied, " nor such people as district attorneys. United 
States marshals, pensioners, and so forth. If we count in all who take the 




A POLITICIAN. 



1 62 TKE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

Government's money, either for work performed or for services formerly 
rendered, you can see that the two hundred thousand would swell to nearly 
a million. The civil list, however, if I may so term it, embraces in round 
numbers the two hundred thousand I first mentioned." 

"What do you mean by the civil list, Mr. Dunlap ? " asked Christine. 

" By the civil list," replied Uncle Tom, " I mean the list or pay-roll of 
those persons who are connected with the civil service of the United States, 
and by the civil service I mean all those persons in the employ of the 
United States who are not in the military or naval service, and by whose 
labors the executive and administrative departments of the Government are 
carried on." 

"That would seem to take in everybody," said Roger. 

" Yes, everybody. Let me see," said Uncle Tom, " I have the number 
of those in departmental service somewhere among- my papers, and these 
are the people who practically direct and control the actions of others 
throughout the Union and In foreign lands. " There are, you know, two 
classes of government officials — those who are elected and those who are 
appointed." 

" But most of them are appointed, are they not? " asked Bert. 

" Certainly," said his uncle. " The President and Vice-President, the 
Senators and Representatives, are elected, and yet, because they are in re- 
ceipt of salary from the United States, they are, so far, to be included in it.s 
civil service." 

Uncle Tom opened his table drawer and began a search for the memo- 
randa he desired. "I don't often fling figures at your heads, boys and 
girls," he said; "but in this case they will enlighten without mystifying you. 
Ah, here it is." 

And Uncle Tom read the list. It embraced the number of officers, 
and employees in the service of Congress, at the White House, and in the 
several executive departments, showing the great army of office-holders 
employed at the nation's capital alone. 

" Outside of the military and naval, the diplomatic and consular service, 
the postal service, et cetera'' said Uncle Tom, "the persons doing duty in 
the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the Government are 
as follows : Congress, 583 ; Executive Office (that 's the President's staff, 
or. as it was originally called, the President's household), 20 ; Department 
of State, 97; Treasury Department, 4176; War Department, 1640; Navy 
Department, 174; Post-Office Department (not counting postmasters, letter- 
carriers, railway postal clerks, etc.), 663 ; Department of the Interior, 4102 ; 
Department of Justice, 102; Department of Agriculture, 458; Department 



^ICv ^ 




Ml 




164 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



of Labor, 66; Government Printing Office, 2960; the District of Columbia 
(which is 'run' by. the United States, you know, in partnership with the 
people of the District, the Government paying one half and the local tax- 
payer the other half of expenses), 171 ; the Supreme Court of the United 




WOMEN AS OFFICE-HOLDERS — A GLIMPSE AT THE DEAD-LETTER OFFICE. 

States, 23 ; and miscellaneous offices, more or less permanent in their charac- 
ter, nearly 1000. There ! that foots up over sixteen thousand people. Add 
to these the postal service of the United States, with its ninety thousand 
postmasters, clerks, and letter-carriers, its inspectors, agents, railway clerks, 
special service ; the officers of the United States Circuit and District courts, 
of the customs, the consular service, etc., — sixty thousand and more in all, — 
and you reach the two hundred thousand people I spoke of as engaged in 
the civil employment of the United States." 

''That 's a big lot," said Jack. " I hope they all are 'civil.'" 
"Well, they certainly should be," said Uncle Tom. " They are all ser- 
vants of the people, as the President told you he was. Some of them, I sup- 
pose, are gruff and sometimes lacking in courtesy ; but as a rule they are 
gentlemen and ladies, and we must, here as elsewhere, make exceptions of 
such people as try to lord it over their fellow-beings, simply because they 
can't stand the responsibility of being what Shakspere describes as 

' man, proud man 
Dressed in a little brief authority.' " 



THE OFFICE-HOLDER 



165 



"And woman, too," added Jack. 

"And woman, too," admitted Uncle Tom. "For you must remember 
that quite a number of the persons in the service of the United States are 
women." 

"Why, to be sure," said Marian. "You know we saw a lot of them 
in the Treasury Department and other buildings. How many are there, 
Uncle Tom ? " 

" Oh, I should say, from fifteen to twenty thousand — almost one in every 
ten," Uncle Tom replied. "There are over seven thousand women post- 
masters, you know." 

" You see. Jack Dunlap, we 're getting there," Marian said to her brother, 
with a toss of her head — for the Dunlap children were old-time disputants 
on the "woman question." 

" I suppose the civil service has grown right straight along from the be 
ginning, has n't it?" asked Roger. 

" Steadily," replied Uncle Tom, 
"though more rapidly of late years. 
In fact, the history of our civil service 
is the story of a rapidly growing na- 
tion. Before the adoption of the Con- 
stitution the civil service included only 
those officials appointed by the Con- 
tinental Congress and the Congress 
of the Confederation. And these were 
scarcely worth mentioning. For, you 
see, there were no revenue laws and 
no revenue officers ; there were no 
executive departments, no clerks and 
no employees. When the Constitution 
was adopted, it gave the General Gov- 
ernment power to appoint men to serve 
it, but during Washington's adminis- 
tration the employees of the Govern- 
ment were, as he himself declared, ' a 
mere handful.' It was possible for 
him to give his personal care and 

supervision to their selection and appointment. Gradually, as the business 
of the departments grew, the number of office-holders increased. The first 
official 'roll' of persons in the employment of the Government was compiled 
and sent to Congress by President Jefi"erson in 1802. This 'roll' shows that 




A BREEZY OFFICE — SIGNAL-SERVICE STATION ON TOP OF 
THE "equitable" BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. 




ONE OF OUR MOST DISTINGUISHED OFFICE-HOLDERS, JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, POET AND ESSAYIST, MINISTER TO 
SFAIN 1877-1880, MINISTER TO ENGLAND 1880-1885. 



THE OFFICE-HOLDER 



167 



the entire number of persons holding office, including about a thousand post- 
masters, was twenty-six hundred and twenty-two, with a pay-roll of one 
million dollars a year. In 1850 the number of employees had reached thirty- 
three thousand; in 1880, one hundred thousand, and to-day it Is just double 
that number." 

"Well, I don't know as that is so very many for such a big country as 
ours," said Roger. 

" It means that in our population of sixty-six millions about one person 
out of every three hundred and thirty has a hand in running the Gov- 
ernment and draws a salary for his services," said Uncle Tom. " The Eno-- 
lish civil service foots up half a million employees. So, you see, our 
proportion of office-holders is not so very great. And most of them do 
good service and faithfully earn the millions of dollars we pay out each year 
in salaries and wages." 

" It is considered a fine thing to be ambassador or consul, is it not, Mr. 
Dunlap ? " asked Roger. 

"Yes," Uncle Tom replied, "and righdy so. For they are representa- 
tives of the nation in foreign lands. For the time being they are the nation. 
The friendless American abroad always feels that he has one friend at least 
to whom he can turn, and he knows that the flag that flies over the consulate 
is his badge of protection." 

" And have not some of these offices abroad been filled by famous 
Americans ? " Bert inquired. 

" Indeed they have," said Uncle Tom. " Presidents have repeatedly 
honored those whom the nation honored by making them ministers or con- 
suls to foreign parts. Thus did President Pierce appoint Hawthorne — " 

"Who wrote 'Twice-Told Tales' and the 'Wonder-Book'?" broke in 
Marian. 

Uncle Tom nodded. " Yes, and the ' Scarlet Letter,' esteemed one of 
the greatest of American romances," he said. " President Pierce made Haw- 
thorne Collector of Customs in Salem, and afterward sent him across the sea 
as United States Consul at Liverpool. Washington Irving was sent to Madrid 
as American Minister at the Court of Spain, and there wrote his famous ' Al- 
hambra,' and, later, James Russell Lowell, one of America's noblest poets 
and essayists, was sent as minister to Spain and afterward to England. 
Other men celebrated in literature or In professional life have served their 
country at home or abroad, as officials of the Department of State, and their 
country has felt proud of her representatives." 

" But does the President have to pick out all these people ? " said Marian ; 
'' and. In England, does the Queen have to ? My patience ! I don't know as I 



1 68 



THE 'STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



care to be either President or Queen. No wonder he looked tired out and 
said he had so much to do ! " 

" You can curb your sympathy, my dear," laughed Uncle Tom. "Nei- 
ther the President nor the Oueen has to choose the 'civil servants' — as 




OFFICE-HOLDERS WHO HAVE A HAKD TIME — SURF-IiOAT DKILL, LIFE-SAVING SEKVICE. 



Jack might call them. The President has, to be sure, a good deal more of 
this to do than the Queen, but both in Great Britain and in this country ap- 
pointments to office are made either by the heads of departments or by a 
special board of selection known as the Civil Service Commission." 

"Why, see here, Uncle Tom!" cried Jack; "I thought that in this 
country it was a question of the ins and the outs. I thought that when my 
party, for instance, comes into power, I turn out all the fellows who belong 
to Roger's party, and when Roger's party comes in, it is — vice versa. Ah, 
ha, Mr. Bert! I orot it ricrht that time, did n't I ?" 

" Your Latin was right, Jack, but your statement not altogether so," said 
Uncle Tom, laughing. "It was formerly the rule that, upon a change of 
political parties in control of the Government, the ins showed the outs the 
door." 

" ' To the victors belong the spoils,'" quoted Jack. " That was what ' Old 
Hickory ' declared, was n't it ? " 

" No, no, jack," said Uncle Tom. " Don't try to pile too much on N'our 



THE OFFICE-HOLDER 



169 



old hero. It was not President Jackson, but a supporter of his, Senator 
Wilham L. Marcy, of New York. He declared in a speech in the United 
States Senate, in 1832, that 'the politicians, when contending for victory, 
avow the intention of enjoying the fruits of it. They see,' he added, ' nothing 
wrong, in the rule that to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy.' " 

" Well, is n't it so now ? " asked Bert. 

"To a far less extent," his uncle responded. "The nation has seen the 
unwisdom and experienced the risks of this overturn of offices at every 
change of political control and, by what is called Civil Service Reform and 
Tenure of Office, it has largely limited the power of crippling the public ser- 
vice that the removal of experienced workers and the appointing of green, 
hands often meant," 




OFFICE-HOLDERS WHO HAVE AN EASY TIME — SENATE PAGES PLAYING MARBLES 
BEHIND THE VICE-PRESIDENT's CHAIR. 

"And what are those? " inquired Jack. " They sound big enough and 
hard enough to scare off the most persistent office-seeker." 

"Tenure of office means that a man shall be appointed to an office and 
be permitted to remain in that office for a stated time — " 

" From teneo, to hold," explained Bert. 



I 70 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

"Thanks, awfully," acknowledged Jack the careless. 

" So," continued Uncle Tom, '' if I make Christine an inspector of 
dairies for four years, and Roger is elected President before those four years 
are up, he cannot turn Christine out of her office, until her time expires, 
unless she has done something that would make it wrong for her to hold 
office." 

" Would n't voting for Roger's opponent come under that head ? " queried 
Bert. 

" No," said Uncle Tom. " She can be removed only ' for cause ' ; and 
political opposition is not cause." 

" 'Cause why ? " put in Jack ; " it 's her privilege as an American, and not 
an offense to anything except Roger's feelings. He would n't like to have 
Christine on the other side, would you, Roger ? " 

" Of course not," said Roger. " But 1 would n't turn her out; I 'd keep 
her in, or give her a better office, you know, because she 's my cousin." 

"Oh, Roger!" exclaimed Uncle Tom. "That 's nepotism; and the 
people are especially down on that." 

"Nepotism? What 's that?" asked Roger, almost as if he were guilty 
of the crime already. 

" Come, what is it. Bert? " Uncle Tom asked. "Air your classics again." 

" Nepotism ? " queried Bert. " Wh)', that 's from — iiepos, a nephew\ I 
don't see how that comes in. Christine is Roger's cousin — not his 
nephew." 

" I should think not ! The idea ! " exclaimed Christine. 

" It really means favoritism to relations," Uncle Tom explained; "run- 
ning back still further, Bert, to a Greek word signifying kindred. It is the 
old system of giving persons power because of relationship rather than 
worth, and our folks do not like that. The American people, indeed, have 
been opposed to it from the start, and prefer to have their rulers follow 
Washington's example. He, you know, refused to appoint his nephew to a 
place in the Government, because he was his nephew ; and that policy has 
held with most of our Presidents since Washington's day." 

"Well, then." said Bert, who never lost sight of the real topic, however 
the others misfht wander off, " tenure of office means holdincr office for a set 
time ; now, what is civil service reform ? " 

"That means," said Uncle Tom, "a reform of the Civil Service, so as to 
put and keep in office those best fitted to do the work of the office, without 
respect to how they vote, or what party they prefer. It was long talked 
of by the best Americans — those who really desired the welfare of their 
country. And it led finally to an Act of Congress, passed in 1883, and 



THE OFFICE-HOLDER 



171 



known as the Civil Service Act, the object of which was to regulate 

prove the Civil Service of the United States. This law provided 

appointment (by the President) of three commissioners, and also 

examiner, a secretary, and 

other employees. They were | 

to be known as the Civil Ser- | ____=_ 

vice Commission." | _ ~_^^^^.^_" 

" Oh, yes," said Jack, "I | 
saw their office in the Con- | 
cordia Building on Eighth I 
street. And does this Com- 
mission make all the appoint- 
ments ? " 

" By no means," said Uncle 
Tom. " It really makes none. 
It examines and recommends. 
The head of the department 
appoints. But he is com- 
pelled to appoint to the va- 
cancy one of the applicants 
recommended by the Civil 
Service Commission as hav- 
ing satisfactorily passed the 
examination." 

" Gracious ! it 's like eet- 
ting into college, is n't it?" 
said Jack. " I guess I won't 
apply for a position. It 's too 
much like school." 



and im- 
for the 
a chief 




" It makes merit and pro- 



THE GREAT NOVELIST, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, AN OFFICE-HOLDEK IN 
THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, AND, AFTERWARD, A CONSUL ABROAD 



hciency the test," said Uncle 

Tom, " and is therefore an excellent way of securing capable officials. Only 
a small proportion of the office-holders, however, are thus appointed. But 
the law works well, and is gradually being extended so that in time it will 
doubtless be applied to most persons seeking offices under the Government. 
To-day, out of the two hundred thousand offices in the gift of the Govern- 
ment, about fifty thousand come under the civil service rules, and are filled 
by applicants who have passed the examinations." 

"Well, that gives us so many good officers, at any rate," said Bert. 

" Yes," said his uncle ; " you see, about one fourth of our public servants 



172 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

in numbers, but really nearly one half in importance, — so far as their duties 
are concerned, — are included in what is called the classified service ; that is, 
those to whom the civil service rules are applied. This classified service, 
as it is called, embraces applicants for office in the departmental service at 
Washington, in the customs service, in the postal service, in the railway 
mail service, and in the Indian service." 

" And the rest ? " asked Marian. 

"The rest," said Uncle Tom, "belong to what is called the unclassified 
service, and are appointed by the President, by and with the consent of the 
Senate, or by the heads of departments subject to the approval of the 
President." 

"What is the objection to this civil service appointment — if there is 
any objection ? " Roger inquired. " Is there ? " 

"Oh, yes," said Uncle Tom; "some people do object. They are those 
who still believe in the old Jacksonian theory of the victors and the spoils, 
and those who say that permanence in office will create what they call an 
official aristocracy." 

" By that they mean, I suppose," said Jack, " that the fellows who hold 
office without fear of removal will feel too big for their boots and just lord it 
over the rest of us, because they think they are in to stay. Is n't that it, 
Uncle Tom ? " 

"Yes, that 's about it, in Anglo-Saxon, Jack," replied Uncle Tom, laugh- 
ing at Jack's way of putting it. " The claim is that permanence in office 
will make those who hold office haughty and overbearing. But I do not 
think so. The American boy — yes, and the American girl — prefer to set 
their eyes on something worth attaining, toward which they can climb the 
ladder of success, step by step. A place under government leads to nothing. 
It is no goal for the ambitious, and those who fill the offices have, as a rule, 
the desire for something better than to be all their lives nothinor more than 
office-holders." 

"Then, on the whole. Uncle Tom, you think," said Bert, "that our 
office-holders compare favorably with the rest of the people, do you ? " 

" Why, certainly," replied his uncle. "Bad men, lazy men, shiftless, 
unprofitable, and selfish men, creep in everywhere. You will find in our 
army of public servants, as you will in positions of trust everywhere, all 
sorts and conditions of men — and women, too. But I believe we are well 
served, and that the men and women to whom we intrust the details of 
government are, as a rule, loyal, conscientious, able, and efficient." 

"Somebody 's got to do our work," said Roger. "And if they did n't 
do it well, I guess they would hear from us." 




h/1. 



J. 



ZV^iCc-^^^*-^ p«^*-*x-T:-<*i^«;r 



A FAMOUS OFFICE-HOLDER — WASHINGTON IRVING, AUTHOR OF "THE SKETCH-BOOK " AND THE " ALHAMBRA, 

MINISTER TO SPAIN 1842-1846. 



1/4 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




bclentific office-holders — sounding the deep sea 

on board the u s fish commission steamer 

"albatross." 



"We are the people!" declared Jack. "And we 've got the say, when 
it comes to that." 

"Yes, and we have a large section to look after, too," said Uncle Tom. 
"The Government is not served in Washington only. Our public servants 
are at work for us all over our broad land and, indeed, throughout the 
world. Seventy thousand post-offices make just so many centers of federal 
authority in the nation. The ten assay offices and mints for refining our 
gold and silver and turning them into coin ; the nine subtreasuries, in as 
many of our large cities, for handling our money ; the sixty-three custom- 
houses by river, lake, and sea ; the two hundred and fifty lighthouses, and 
the same number of life-saving stations along our coasts ; the two hundred 
big government buildings, in as many cities and towns, flying, ever)' day. 
the Stars and Stripes, — these with land offices, weather bureaus, Indian 
agencies, and many other important government offices, to say nothing of 
our forts and arsenals and navy-yards, and our embassies and consulates in 
foreign lands, serve to surround the name of the United States with respect, 
to elevate it into power, and to dress it in authority." 

"And let anybody assail it if they dare!" cried Jack, roused to enthu- 
siasm. " Tf any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him 
on the spot !' Hooray for General Dix ! " 

" No one will attempt it, Jack," said Uncle Tom; " so curb your combative- 



THE OFFICE-HOLDER I 75 

ness. We shall never, I am sure, have a foreign war. Our position isolates 
us ; our strength at home is a standing menace to foreign invasion. Our 
little regular army, supplemented by the organized militia of our States, is 
the nucleus for a fighting force of nearly eight millions of men, whom dan- 
ger could call to arms. But defenses and defenders that might repel a 
foreign foe are of small avail if the people are not patriots. True patriot- 
ism means self-government. The people are the nation, and the people must 
be their own defenders. It is for them to see to it, not only that the thou- 
sands who serve them as public servants are honest, capable, and reliable, 
but that they themselves are filled with the spirit that responds when duty 
calls — whether that duty be to speak, to vote, to labor, or to fight in behalf 
of the land they love. This, after all, boys and girls, is what makes a peo- 
ple, what makes a nation, what makes a home land great. Give it to us, 
Jack, in the words of a poet. Tell us what constitutes a State. I Ve heard 
you rehearsing it to speak at school." 

"What do you mean, Uncle Tom — that piece of poetry I learned last 
winter?" asked Jack. 

" Yes, that ode by Sir William Jones — who, by the way, died just a hun- 
dred years ago this very year of 1894," his uncle responded. 

And Jack, nothing loath, gave well and intelligently the lines his uncle 

asked for : 

" What constitutes a State ? 
Not high-raised battlements or labored mound, 

Thick wall or moated gate ; 
Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned; 

Not bays and broad-armed ports, 
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; 

Not starred and spangled courts. 
Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 

No; Men, high-minded men, 
With powers as far above dull brutes endued 

In forest, brake or den, 
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ; 

Men who their duties know. 
But know their rights^ and, knowing, dare maintain, 

Prevent the long-aimed blow. 
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain; 

These constitute a State ; 
And sovereign law, that State's collected will, 

O'er thrones and globes elate 
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. 

Smit by her sacred frown. 
The fiend. Dissension, like a vapor sinks; 

And e'en the all- dazzling crown 
Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks." 



176 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Good for you, Jack, and many dianks," said Uncle Tom. "That is a 
capital text for us all to preach ourselves a sermon from, here in the capital 
of our country, or wherever in our native land our duty may fall. We 
must be men — and women, girls, as well — ready to do the duty nearest 
us — worthy to be called Americans. The office-holder is our fellow-citizen ; 
the public service is really what we make it. Unless we, as a nation, are 
worthy, — united, unselfish, patriotic, and progressive, — how can the men and 
women who labor for us in the public service be worthy ? Remember what 
wise Ben Hanif the Arab said : ' Ye shall know a plant by its flower, a vine 
by its fruit, and a man by his acts.' It is our duty to see that we are good 
Americans, and then shall we be served by good Americans. 

"But, come," he added, dropping his earnest tones of counsel, "many 
words parch the throat, and statistics are but a dry dessert. Let us have 
some ice-cream. Press the button, will you, Bert, and the bell-boy will do 
the rest." 

So they had ice-cream all around and a half-hour of fun and laughter ; 
after which came "good night" and bed. 




THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



CHAPTER XII 



THE FLAG OF THE UNION 



The flags on the Capitol — The meaning of a flag — The history of " Old 
Glory " — a7id its glory. 




UP g-o the flags on the Capitol ! Congress is in 
session," said Roger, as, standing on the broad 
sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue, the young in- 
vestigators looked down that never-wearying vista 
that ends with the Capitol dome. " Why do they 
run up the flag, Mr. Dunlap ? " 

"The flag is the badge of possession," Uncle 
Tom replied. "The American people, through 
their chosen representatives, are now in possession 
of the Capitol, officially. When Congress is not in 
session the Capitol is practically closed — although 
it is really always open. But it is not in use by the 
people for the business of law-making. The flag tells the story." 
" Does a flag mean possession, Mr. Dunlap?" inquired Christine. 
" In a general sense, yes," answered Mr. Dunlap. " But it means more. 
It means possession, protection, pride, and patriotism." 

" Let us have p's !" cried punning Jack. "That makes me think of 

' An Austrian army, awfully arrayed, 
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade.'" 

" Perhaps," said Bert, "those four p's mean that when an American sees 
his flag flying, it gives him the cue to behave himself — in other words, to 
mind his p's and q's !" 

"Albert, my son," Jack exclaimed with mock solemnity, "when a giant 
intellect like yours takes to making puns it is a sign for little wits like mine to 
take a back seat — in other words (as you say), to let my propensity flag !" 




A U S T F^ I A 




ARGENTINE REPUBLIC 




BOLIVIA 




BRAZIL 




CANADA 





CHILI 




DENMARK 




ECUADOR 



Whereupon the girls cried : 
"Oh, Jack!" The boys groaned; 
and Mr. Dunlap said, " Excuse me, 
good people, if I button up my 
coat ; if it is true, as somebody 
said, that the man who will pun 
will pick a pocket, Jack and Bert 
are certainly dangerous company, 
and my thin little pocket-book 
is not safe. 

" But, joking aside," he con- 
tinued, " I was right in my four 
p's — they explain the meaning of 
the flag. Practically, a flag is but 
a trade-mark. When a man ofoes 
into business, the first thino- he 
does is to put out his sign to let 
pebple know who he is. Then he 
puts a label on the goods he makes, 
to show that he is responsible for 
the excellence of those oroods and 

o 

to protect himself from others who 
might try to take advantage of 
him. When a people set up for 
themselves as a State or a nation, 
they run up their flag as a badge of 
individuality. That flag is their 
sign and label in the face of the 
world. P)ut, more than this, a flag 



EGYPT 




FRAN C E 




GERMANY 




GR^EAT BRITAIN 



GREECE 





H AYTI 




HAWAIIAN ISLANDS 




I RELAN D 




ITALY 



THE FLAGS OP 
Tn these pictures of flags, white is left white, red is shown by vertical lines, bluf 




JAPAN 




LI BERIA 




MEXICO 




NETHERLANDS 



NICARAGUA 




N R^WAY 



Of^ANGE Ff^EE STATE 



PERU 




PERSIA 




is a symbol of authority. The 
eagles of Rome meant power and 
possession, wherever they were 
displayed. So, now, do the red 
cross of England, the tricolor of 
France, the double eao-le of Ger- 
many, the dragon of China, the 
stars and stripes of America; and, 
of course, we are, all of us, abso- 
lutely certain that, compared with 
the flaos of other nations, our star- 
spangled banner is the most beau- 
tiful flaof in the world. Victor 
Hugo, said, ' There are two things 
holy — the flag which represents 
military honor, and the law which 
represents the national right.' But, 
really, the flag means both honor 
and right. It means, to Americans, 
the noblest combination of liberty 
and law." 

" Liberty and law! " exclaimed 
Jack, " that makes me think of that 
piece I used to speak in school — 
don't you remember it, Bert? 
Beecher on 'Our Flag.' Let 's 
It ended up something like 



see. 



this" ; and Jack, who was one of 
the prize elocutionists of his school 




R^U S S I A 




S I A M 




S PAI N 




SWEDEN 




SWITZERLAND 



TU R^KEY 




TUNIS 




U. S.o^ (OLOMBIA 




UF^UGUAY 




VENEZUELA 



OTHER NATIONS. 

by horizontal lines, green by diagonal lines, and yellow by dotted space. 



i8o 



THE SJORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



and loved to "spout," gave them this extract from Henry Ward Beecher's 
stirring speech 



and eave it well 




THE PALMETTO FLAG. 




" Our flag carries American ideas, American history, and American feelings. Beginning with 
the colonies, and coming down to our time, in its sacred heraldry, in its glorious insignia, it has 

gathered and stored chiefly this supreme idea : Divine right of liberty 
in man. Every color means liberty ; every thread means liberty ; 
every form of star, every beam or stripe of light, means liberty : not 
lawlessness, not license ; but organized institutional liberty — liberty 
through law, and laws for liberty ! " 

" And there you have it ! " cried Roger, point- 
ing to the flag that streamed from the Capitol ; while 
a gentleman who had evidently overheard the boy's 
repressed oratory (Jack declared he was a congress- 
man who wanted to use it in a speech), clapped Jack 
on the shoulder, and said, " That 's great, my son ; 
I wish you could write it off for me. Don't you ever 
forget it." 

" But did the Stars and Stripes begin with the 
colonies, as Beecher said in his speech ? " Marian 
asked. " I had an idea that the flag came with the 
Constitution." 

" Huh ! " exclaimed Jack, " our troops had to 
have a flag to fight under, did n't they ? They could n't march along with 
a copy of the Constitution flying from a flag-staff or stuck on a bayonet — 
and it was n't written then, either. Of course the flag came first; did n't it, 

Uncle Tom ? " 

''Well, in one sense it did. Jack, and in another 
it did n't," his uncle r-eplied. " For, really, the first 
official regrulation establishino^ the flag: of the United 
States as we know it to-day, did not become a law 
until the year 1818. That act provided that 'from 
and after the fourth day of July, 18 18,' the flag should 
be thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white, 
with a union bearing twenty white stars in a blue 
field, a new star to be added whenever a new State was admitted into the 
Union. In accordance with that act of 1818 we now have our flag of 
thirteen stripes and forty-four stars." 

" But what about the flag that they saw by the dawn's earl)' light, and 
so proudly they hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?" Jack inquired. 



THE RATTLESNAKE FLAG. 




THE OLD MASSACHUSETTS 
STATE FLAG. 



THE FLAG OF THE UNION 



I«I 



,f 9"'^'-t IH* a, v-.rv!,' 




" How many broad stripes and bright stars did that have in that perilous 

nigrht? " 

" Meaning the flag of Fort McHenry in the War of i8i 2, six years before 

the official act of Congress?" queried 

Roger. 

" That 's the very identical star- 
spangled banner I mean," said Jack. 

"That," said Uncle Tom, "had fif- 
teen stripes and fifteen stars. I saw 

it when it was exhibited in the old 

South Church, in Boston. It was a 

big fellow. It contained four hundred 

yards of bunting. It did, really, have 

'broad stripes,' as the song says — 

each one was two feet wide. It is 

now, I believe, an honored relic at 

Yonkers, New York." 

" Then it was really the Stars and 

Stripes ? " said Christine. 

" Oh, yes, it was the Stars and 

Stripes, but not the well-proportioned 

flag we are familiar with," Uncle Tom 

replied. "The story of the Stars and 

Stripes is quite interesting. The flags 

first used in the American Revolution 

were got up on the spur of the mo- 
ment, or were those borne by local companies and organizations. Such 

were the blue 'liberty flag,' the 'appeal to heaven' flags, the pine-tree flags 

of the North, and the rattlesnake flags of the South." 
"Why rattlesnake?" queried Bert. 
" A flag of warning," Uncle Tom replied. " One 
was a yellow flag ; one was white ; one was made 
with red and white stripes, and one with blue and 
red stripes. But all of them showed a rattlesnake 
coiled, ready to strike, and bearing the warning, 
' Don't tread on me ! ' No colors were used at 
Lexington ; none were displayed on the American 
earthworks at Bunker Hill. When the troops began 

to gather for defense after the Bunker Hill fight, each company of 

soldiers flew its own ' colony flag,' or the ' union flags ' of varying colors. 



>A.»Ji«iirmnM>Mir) 



<''ur§tar ?.nuao!cA 4,^au!u-r ." 



THE FLAG OF FORT MCHENRY. 
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH MADE IN 1873 FOR A PAMPHLET BY 
CAPTAIN PREBLE. (DIMENSIONS OF FLAG, 29 BY 32 FEET.) 




THE FLAG OF 1776. 



l82 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



A month after the battle of Bunker Hill, General Putnam hoisted at his 
camp on Prospect Hill (now the city of Somerville) a crimson flag, bearing 
the motto, 'An Appeal to Heaven.' The first suggestion of the Stars and 
Stripes seems to have come from a committee on which P>anklin served. 
The flag recommended by the committee was one of thirteen stripes, alter- 
nate red and white, and with no stars in the union, but, instead, the red 
cross of England. This was the flag hoisted by Washington at his camp on 
Prospect Hill, on the first of January, 1776." 

" I have seen the very place where that flag was run up," said Roger. 
" It is within gunshot of my cousin's house. It is right on the edge of Prospect 
Hill, in Somerville, where you can sweep the whole country, from the Wash- 
ington Elm at Cambridge to Bunker Hill Monument and the dome of the 
Boston State House. A granite slab marks the spot, and it says — here, I 've 
got it in my note-book — I copied it off last fall when we had a talk at 
school on ' Historic Spots around Boston'" ; and Roger showed a leaf in his 
note-book that read : 

ON THIS HILL 

THE UNION FLAG WITH ITS THIRTEEN STRIPES 

• THE EMBLEM OF THE 

UNITED COLONIES 

FIRST BADE DEFIANCE TO AN ENEMY 

January i, 1776 



"That's one nice thing about Boston folks," said Christine. "They 
mark all the historic places. Why, you can ride from Boston to Lexington 
and just follow the march and retreat of the British; and there is a slab 
where the first flag was hoisted, and there is a slab under the tree where 

Washington took command of the army — 
and all that. It makes history so interesting, 
I think." 

" I 'm glad to have seen that inscription, 
Roger," Uncle Tom said. "A note-book is 
good to have for such things, though I did 
make it one rule of our personally conducted 
part)' that no memorandum books should be 
taken. Well ; that flag was used as ' the 
for some months. The next year Congress took the mat- 
ter under consideration, and, on the fourteenth of June, 1777, ordered that 
the flag of the thirteen United States be 'thirteen stripes, alternate red and 
white,' the union to contain on a blue field ' thirteen stars representing a new 




WASHINGTON S SEAL. 



Union flaof 



WASHINGION S LAST 
WATCH-SEAL. 



THE FLAG OF THE UNION 



183 




BETSY ROSS, WHO MADE THE FIRST STARS AND STRIPES. 



constellation.' This 'official' flag was first displayed at Fort Schuyler, near 
what is now Rome, New York. It was designed under the personal direction 
of Washington. It was made by Mrs. Ross, in Philadelphia, and she held 
for some years the position of ' manufacturer of flags for the Government.' " 

" G. W. was right 'in it' every time, when anything was going on, was 
n't he ? " Jack remarked. 

"That Is because he was interested in anything that bore in any way 
upon the business he had in hand — success," said Mr. Dunlap. 

'T have read, somewhere," said Christine, "that the idea of the Stars 
and Stripes came from Washington's coat of arms. Was that so, Mr. Dunlap? " 



i84 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



" I have read the same thing, too," Mr. Dunlap replied. " But I imagine 
it was more a coincidence than a suggestion — just as it was a coincidence 
that the baptismal robe of litde George Washington was of white silk, bound 
with red silk and trimmed wath blue ribbon. See: red, white, and blue! 
But I don't imagine any one would say that our national colors were taken 
from Washington's christening dress ! I have seen Washington's book- 
plate, and his coat of arms was, certainly, a shield with four stripes and 
three stars. But I believe it is now admitted that the stars and stripes 
of the flag were not suggested by that book-plate nor that coat of arms." 
'' And I have heard," said Jack, "that Mrs. Washington had a big mot- 
tled cat. This cat's name was Hamilton, and it had thirteen yellow rings 
around its tail. It was that tail waving aloft that suggested to Congress, 
the flag with thirteen stripes." 

"Jack Dunlap, you are incorrigible !" laughed Uncle Tom. "Where do 
you hear such stuff? " 

"No ; honest Injun, Uncle Tom," said Jack, " I did hear that — though 
i must say, for the truth of history, that it was taken from the diary of a 

British officer, who also declared that 
he understood that Mr. Washington 
had thirteen toes to his feet — the extra 
toes havine erown since the Declara- 
tion of Independence ! " 

" Oh, come now, that 's sacrilege,"" 
said honest Bert ; " I don't like it." 

" I don't either," protested Jack ; 
" I was mad enough when I heard it. 
But I gave it to you, just now, merely 
as a contribution to history." 

" A contribution to satire, I imagine,"" 
said Uncle Tom. " You will always 
find one side poking fun at the other, 
whether in war, in politics, or in re- 
ligion." 

" Oh, I don't believe in Mrs. Wash- 
ington's cat," Jack declared. " I had 
much rather take that poet's word for it who tells us that Mrs. Freedom, 
on her mountain height, ' tore the azure robe of night, and set the stars of 
glory there ' ; and then that ' she striped its pure celestial white with streak- 
ings of the morning light.' That 's much prettier, even if it is just a little 
* highfalutin.' " 




SIGN AT FRONT CORNER OF THE HOUSE IN WHICH THE 
FIRST "stars and STRIPES " WAS MADE. 



THE FLAG OF THE UNION 



185 



"Well, it 's a 
beautiful flag, any- 
way, whoever thought 
of the design," Marian 
exclaimed ; and Bert 
said, as he waved his 
hand toward the flag 
flying from the great 
white Capitol : 

" Look at it! Is 
there anything more 
beautiful than that ? " 

"It is beautiful," 
Mr. Dunlap assented, 
"alike in design, in 
colors, in proportion, 
and in significance. 
Think of what it 
means to Americans ! 
Think of the ships it 
has sailed on, the forts 
it has waved above, 
the battle-fields on 
which it has floated, 
the ceremonies it has 
graced, the heroes 
whose coffins it has 
draped, the protection 
it has afforded, the pa- 
triotism it has aroused! 
Practically, the star-spangled banner may be merely America's trade-mark ; 
but, boys, it has really been our pride, our inspiration, our poem in bunting." 

" Set to music by Washington and sung by all America," cried Bert with 
more than his customary enthusiasm ; while Jack, as usual breaking out 
into elocution whenever a good opportunity ofiered, capped Bert's patriotic 
sentiment with Drake's stirring lines : 

" Flag of the free heart's hope and home, 
By angel hands to valor given ! 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues Avere bom in heaven. 




NUMBER 239 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA — THE HOUSE IN WHICH THE FIRST 
".STARS AND STRIPES " WAS MADE. 



i86 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



Forever float that standard sheet ! 

Where breathes the foe but falls before us, 
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, 

And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ! " 

"Those are the sentiments I hke to hear from yoti, boys," said Mr. 
Dunlap. "There is nothing that so thrills the beholder with pride and pa- 
triotism as the streaming flag of his country. Senator Hoar says that the 
fairest vision on which his eyes ever looked was the flag of his country in a 




"evening colors" on an AMERICAN MAN-OF-WAR. 



foreign land. On board a man-of-war the flag is almost reverently saluted, 
and the bugle-call 'Evening colors!' leads to a most impressive and beautiful 
ceremony. Your father. Jack, as a small New York boy, first saw Abraham 
Lincoln on his way to Washington saluting the people as he rode down 
Twenty-third Street precisely at the instant when he was passing beneath a 
great American flag from which streamed the prophetic words, ' Fear not, 
Abraham; I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.' That was a 
moment never to be forgotten. And one of the color-guard at West Point 
told me that among the most impressive sights he ever saw was stern 
old General vSherman salutintr the flae as he once reviewed the battalion of 



THE FLAG OF THE UNION 



187 



cadets at West Point. It was, with the old fighter, both an act of reverence 
and a lesson in veneration. The flag, boys and girls, is, next to our parents, 
our most tender and stirring memory." 

" Well, I guess I felt just as proud as General Sherman," said Marian, 




'when I MAFfcHED AT THE HEAD AS COLOR-BEARER.' 



*' when I marched at the head of our gymnasium class, as color-bearer, last 
Washington's Birthday." 

" It is curious though, is n't it," said practical Bert, "to think of what a 
piece of bunting can do. For, after all, that is what it is." 



i88 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Yes," said Uncle Tom, "the flag, I know, is only a piece of bunting; 
but think what that bunting flies for ! I wonder if I cannot recall what 
Charles Sumner said? Jack's eloquence impels me to a quotation, if I can 
only remember it. Sumner said of the flag : ' It is a piece of bunting lifted 




GENERAL SHERMAN SALUTING THE FLAG AT WEST POINT. 



in the air; but it speaks sublimity, and every part has a voice. Its stripes 
of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen States to 
maintain the Declaration of Independence, Its stars, white on a field of blue, 
proclaim that union of States constituting our national constellation which 
receives a new star with every new State. The two, together, signify union. 



THE FLAG OF THE UNION 



i8q 



past and present. The very colors have a language which was officially 
recognized by our fathers. White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice ; 
and all together — bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky — 
make the flag of our country — to be cherished by all our hearts, to be 
uplifted by all our hands.' " 

"That 's fine," exclaimed Roger. "Oh, how I should like to be an 
orator!" 

"Words are fine, Roger," said Mr. Dunlap, "but deeds are better. Re- 
member what the greatest of our orators, Daniel Webster, said : ' When 
the standard of the Union is raised and waves over my head — the standard 
which Washington planted on the ramparts of the Constitution, God forbid 
that I should inquire whom the people have commissioned to unfurl it and 
bear it up. I only ask in what manner, as an humble individual, I can best 
discharge my duty in defending it.' That 's the proper spirit, boys. Whether 
or not you can sway people by your eloquence, you can be Americans. To 
be a loyal American, you must be a good citizen ; and to be a good citizen, 
you must believe that you have a duty to do toward others. You can't be a 
good patriot and be selfish. You must think of others as well as of your- 
self, and try to do what is best for all. You must help make the laws 
by your votes ; you must help keep the laws by your lives. This flag 
of ours is the symbol of law — that is, it is the badge of America's free- 
dom, America's power, America's justice, and America's protecting arm. 
It is not simply a holiday flag. It is, as Mr. Beecher said in that speech Jack 
quoted from, ' our whole national history. It is the Constitution. It is the 
Government. It is the people.' " 




■/\ Parting Jalute 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

(From a painting by John Trumbull, now in the City Hall, New York. This was painted in 1790, 

while Congress and the President were in New York.) 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 



The tourists visit the Washington Monument — The tall shaft leads to a 
talk on the 2Lnion of States — Uncle Tom explains what a State is — He 
tells them of the government of cities and towns — How we are governed 
yet Jree. 

HE next morninof was cool, briofht, and clear. "An 
ideal day for the monument," said Uncle Tom. And. 
so, breakfast over, he and his " tourists " walked briskly 
across Pennsylvania Avenue and down Fourteenth street, 
headed for the Park, in which, half a mile south of the 
White House, there stood, springing upward from a little 
knoll, the one object that shares with the great dome of 
the Capitol the honor of never being absent from the eye 
of the visitor to the seat of our National Government — ■ 
the tall, white shaft known as the Washington Monu- 
ment. 

The children had looked at and admired it from the 

very moment of their arrival at the capital. They had. 

longed to visit the towering white marvel and look through the little slits they 

could just make out beneath its pointed top; but, true to their promise never 

to tease, they said nothing, and awaited Uncle Tom's word and lead. 

They had viewed it from all sides and in all lights — from the city, from 
the Capitol, from the White House, from the river, from the heights of 
Arlington, and across the Virginia meadows — in the full glare of the sun, 
through the mist and rain, in the early morning, and in the soft twilight just 
before the night came down. It had held and attracted them from the begin- 
ning — a beacon fascinating by its very bigness (always an alluring quality 
for American boys and girls), and forever bringing to their minds a thought 
of the great patriot and leader in whose honor it had arisen at the bidding 
of a grateful people. 




1^2 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

"How high is it, Uncle Tom?" asked Marian, as, cHmbing the gentle 
slope, they stood at the base of the monument and let their eyes travel up 
its shining wall of stone. 

•' Five hundred and fifty-five feet, five and one eighth inches, from floor 
to apex," replied Uncle Tom, who had stored his mind with figures, in an- 
ticipation of just such questions. 

"Well! that is n't so very high," said Jack. "Why, from here" — and 
he squinted his eye once more along the towering shaft — " it looks about 
ten thousand feet to the top." 

" No, five hundred and fifty-five feet is not so very high for a moun- 
tain," returned Uncle Tom; "but it 's pretty good for a monument. For, 
please to remember, Master Jack, this Washington monument is the highest 
artificial elevation in the world. For we do not count the Eiffel Tower at 
Paris as a permanency or a monument." 

" That 's good enough for us," said Jack. "We don't want anybody to 
get any higher, do we, fellows. But — I say, Roger — how is your Bunker 
Hill monument? " 

" Oh, that 's all right. Jack," said the Boston boy, good-humoredly. 
" Bunker Hill 's two hundred and twenty-one feet. That 's high enough to 
fall from, I guess. You know that is the place where Warren fell. But 
this is the spot where the name of Washington will forever rise. And, of 
course, there is n't anything that can get as high as that." 

" Good for you, Roger," cried Uncle Tom, patting his young friend ap- 
provingly on the shoulder. " That 's the time you got ahead of Mr. Jack. 
Come, let us go in." 

They passed through the door in the base of the monument and stood 
within the hollow shaft of marble. Seated upon the benches placed there 
for visitors they waited for the elevator which was to lift them to the top. 

"When was this monument started and when was it finished, Mr. 
Dunlap ? " Christine inquired. 

"The idea of a suitable memorial to George Washington," Uncle Tom 
replied, "was started in 1783, at the close of the American Revolution. It 
was to be erected, so the Continental Congress voted, ' at the place where the 
residence of Congress shall be established.' The plan, however, developed 
slowly. In 1835 the Washington Monument Association was formed; the 
design of Robert Mills was accepted ; but it was not until the sixth of Decem- 
ber, 1884, that the capstone of the completed monument was placed in posi- 
tion amid booming cannon and pealing bells. The corner-stone was laid on 
the fourth of July, 1848, and it is significant to remember that at that cere- 
mony the old and the new were present. For in the company that witnessed 



THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 



193 



the laying of that corner-stone were Mrs. Hamilton, widow of Alexander 
Hamilton, ' the father of the Constitution,' and Abraham Lincoln, the father 
of our New America — then an almost unknown congressman from Illinois." 

" That was curious, was n't it? " said Bert. 

" And how appropriate ! " said Marian. 

The cautious elevator slid down its iron ways, discharged its cargo of 




warn 




THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. 



satisfied observers, speedily filled again, and rising, rising, rising — "Guess 
we 're bound for Mars this trip," said Jack — it climbed to the top, and 
the boys and girls at last stood within the small chamber with its four 
windows, built beneath the roof stones of the obelisk, five hundred and 
seventeen feet above the city streets. 

"Can't anybody say but that we 're up in the world now, can they?" 



194 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

said Marian, taking off her hat, whicli the stiff breeze persisted in setting 
awry. " My, my ; what a beautiful view ! " 

It was a beautiful view. At their feet lay the, city — its great Department 
Buildings looking like toy houses, even the grand dome of the Capitol 
dwarfed by distance. Twisting this way and that, the Potomac, like a silver 
ribbon, wound its way from the highlands to the bay. To the south 
stretched the woods and fields of Virginia, once alive with hosts of fighting 
men ; to the north lay the Maryland hills, with Sugar Loaf towering above 
them fifty miles away ; while along the west, a misty line upon the horizon, 
young eyes could distinctly trace the mighty masses of the Blue Ridge of 
Virginia sixty-five miles distant. 

From one window an amateur photographer was carefully capturing a 
comprehensive snap-shot of the White House and the President's grounds, 
while from every other window the " ohs " and " ahs " of delighted observers 
came in continual chorus. 

At last they were satisfied and prepared to descend. But not by the 
elevator — or ''the alleviator," as Jack had called it when he heard that it 
really saved them from climbing eight hundred and ninety-eight steps ! 

" It is easier to go down than up," said Uncle Tom — whereupon Bert 
murmured '' Facilis descensus averni,'' and Marian said, "What does that 
mean, Bert ? " 

"The down grade is always easiest," said Bert, in free translation. 

"We can take it leisurely," continued Uncle Tom, "for I wish you to 
see the memorial stones." 

"What are they, Uncle Tom?" Marian inquired. 

" Blocks of marble set inside the monument; the sfifts of States and na- 
tions, corporations and societies, and duly carved and inscribed," explained 
Uncle Tom. 

They saw and studied them all as they descended. There was the 
marble block from the ruins of the Parthenon sent by Greece, the stone 
from William Tell's chapel sent by Switzerland, the blocks from China and 
Japan, and the memorial blocks from forty States and Territories of the 
American Union. 

" Well, all the world and his wife seem to have chipped in to help build 
this monument," declared Jack; and Uncle Tom responded, "That is so, 
Jack. I consider the inside of this great obelisk a capital object-lesson of 
the world's regard for the memory of George Washington." 

As they sat beneath the shade of the trees that make the Mall, near the 
Smithsonian, so restful and attractive, Bert said musingly, " It seems to me. 
Uncle Tom, as if all those marble blocks set up inside the Washington 



THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 



195 



monument by the different States give a first-class reading of our national 
motto, ' Many in one,' do they not? " 

"They do, indeed, Bert," his uncle responded. "And, more than that, 
they typify, for me, the very design of our republic — the union of States in 




THE NEW YORK CITY HALL. 



a completed but ever-aspiring structure, towering far above all its surround- 
ings. The American nation is liberty's memorial to the world's noblest desire 
— the freedom, the union, and the brotherhood of man." 

" I don't know as I exactly understand about our forty-five States, Mr. 
Dunlap," said Roger. "They are separate commonwealths, I know; but 
just how were they made, and how is their governing separate from that 
of the nation they are joined together to form ? " 

"Well, it is rather a complex subject, Roger, but I '11 try to explain it 
briefly," Mr. Dunlap replied.. "To you young people a State, I suppose, 
is but a lot of people living in a greater or less area of ground, familiar to 
you by the colors and shapes you have studied on your maps at school — 
Maine, in outline like a grenadier's hat, leading the advance ; Roger's Mas- 
sachusetts, with bended arm and doubled fist 'squaring off at all creation,' 
as Dr. Holmes once said ; Jack's New York, a giant wedge with the little 
end at Buffalo keeping Niagara Falls from tumbling all over the State ; 
shield-shaped Ohio; purse-shaped Florida; and California, like a great sea- 



196 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




THE NEW CITV HALL, PHILADELPHIA. 



lion, rearing itself to face the Pacific breakers. But a State is something 
more than a geography question, to be located, bounded, and 'capitalized.'" 

" Very good, Uncle Tom," said Jack, approvingly. "You 're coming 
on, I see." 

''A State," continued Uncle Tom, "is a certain stretch of country, limited 
to certain fixed boundaries and inhabited by a certain body of people, 
banded together for self-protection, self-government, and self-interest. But 
all these * selfs ' are combined for the general good, upon the theory that the 
good of one is the good of all, and the good of all is the good of one." 



THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 1 97 

" How is that different from the nation. Uncle Tom?" inquired Bert. 

"Well, it is much the same idea," replied his uncle. "The American- 
Union is a State composed of States ; it is a republic of republics ; a common- 
wealth of commonwealths. But, as we are accustomed to use the word, a 
State is one of the units in our federal system. For each State in our Union 
is a separate and sovereign commonwealth, making its own laws, governing 
its own people and supreme within its own boundaries so far as its own af- 
fairs are concerned. But, being part of a federal nation, each State sur- 
renders, to make that union a nation, certain of the rights that it would hold 
to tenaciously were it simply a nation by itself" 

"That 's just what I w^anted to ask," said Roger; "what rights does a 
State have in the Union, and what does it give up to the General Govern- 
ment ? " 

" I will answer your last question first, Roger," Uncle Tom responded. 
" The States surrender to the nation the control of such matters as declaring 
war and making peace, military and naval affairs, treaties and relations with 
foreign nations, the postal service, foreign and domestic commerce, the 
coinage and the currency, patents and copyrights. Federal Courts of Justice, 
and taxation for general purposes. These are matters that affect all the 
citizens of all the States, but, as I once explained to you, it would make a 
terrible 'mix-up' if each State were permitted to regulate these affairs to suit 
itself. So, for the sake of harmonious regulation, the control of these mat- 
ters is surrendered to the General Government, which thus exercises direct 
authority over every citizen." 

" But the State has a direct authority over every one of its citizens, too, 
does it not, Uncle Tom ? " asked Bert. 

" Certainly, it has," his uncle replied. 

" Then I don't see but he is a sort of divided citizen, is n't he ? " 

" Not a divided citizen," replied Uncle Tom, with a smile, " but a citizen 
with a double — in fact with a triple allegiance." 

" How do you make that out. Uncle Tom ? " said Jack, 

"Why, in this way," said Uncle Tom: " I am an American citizen ; the 
nation manages for me all matters set apart, as I named them, for national 
control ; to the nation therefore I owe allegiance. I am a citizen of the 
State in which I live, which manages for me its State affairs, its public-school 
system, its institutions for the bad, the sick, the poor, and the unfortunate, 
and its extensive internal improvements ; to the State therefore I ow^e allegi- 
ance. I am a citizen of the city and county in which I have my home and 
which manage for me the proper and necessary care of all matters affecting 
my home surroundings and calling for home care and expenditure ; to my 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




OLD STATE HOUSE, BOSTON. 



own town or city therefore 1 owe allegiance. Do you see now how I am 
really three citizens rolled into one ? " , , , , i 

"My thouc^h ! ■• said Marian ; " I don't know but I 'm glad I am no a 
man' and. "Gracious!" e.xdaimed Jack, " 1 think I '11 stay a boy a Uttle 
longer. That 's more to attend to than 1 care for just now. ^ 

■It sounds a lot," said Roger, ■•but 1 don't really believe it is-.s :t, 

Mr. Dunlap?" 



THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 1 99 

"Well," said Uncle Tom, 'T believe it is computed that the average 
American citizen devotes just ten hours a year to public affairs. He pays 
his taxes, which cover the cost of his triple citizenship ; he votes for the men 
he wishes to put into office, and there — for too many of us — the worry 
ends." 

" But whom does he put into office, Uncle Tom ? " asked Marian, 
" You have told us whom he sends to Congress and the White House ; now> 
whom does he put in office in his State and city ? " 

" Is not the State Government planned out much the same as the Gen- 
eral Government ? " inquired Roger. 

"Yes, there is a similarity of design," Uncle Tom responded; "only it 
was the nation that copied from the States, and not the States from the na- 
tion. It is, in fact, an Americanized edition of the old colonial governments 
with the people as the sovereign instead of the king of England." 

"They took the best ideas, I suppose," said Bert, "and improved upon 
them, did n't they ? " 

"Yes," replied his uncle. "The power of the State is vested in an ex- 
ecutive, a legislative, and a judiciary branch on much the same lines as the 
Government here at Washington. The State has a central city for its capital, 
where the laws are made for the State as they are here at the capital for 
the country. The State capitol building is generally called the State 
House — " 

"They are fine buildings, too," Jack broke in; "the new Capitol at 
Albany is a grand affair." 

"So is the State House in Boston," said Roger. " It has just been en- 
larged into a fine large building. I went through the new portion just 
before I came on." 

"Yes, and some of the other States have equally fine buildings for their 
State Houses. The law-makers of the State are called the Legislature — " 

" We call that in Massachusetts, sometimes, the Great and General 
Court," said Roger. 

"That was its old title," said Uncle Tom. "But the Legislature is 
the name now given to the State legislative department. It consists of a 
Senate and an Assembly — which corresponds to the House of Represen- 
tatives here — elected by the people. This Legislature looks after the civil 
and religious rights of the citizens ; it also cares for the education of 
the people ; it regulates the rights of voters ; prescribes the marriage 
laws, and the relations of husbands and wives ; of parents and children ; it 
prescribes the powers of master and servant ; of principal and agents in 
business arrangements ; it regulates partnerships, the relations of debtor 



200 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

and creditor, the formation of corporations, the care and disposal of property, 
the relations of trades and contracts, and makes and enforces all laws 
against criminals, except such as involve crimes against the United States, 
those on the high seas, and those against the laws of nations — these are 
looked after by the nation. So, you see, the State has a great many duties, 
to perform, and is the mainstay of its citizens in the interest of law and 
order." 

" But are not some of these duties performed by the towns and cities ? '"^ 
asked Bert. 

" In a more limited and local sense, yes," replied his uncle. "The State 
is divided into counties, the counties into townships. Thus the town and 
the city — even the smallest village — has its officers who look after its 
guidance and government. The head man — or executive — of the State is 
called the governor ; the head man of the city is the mayor, and the city 
has its local board of representative men, known as its common council, as 
the county has its board of supervisors, and the village its selectmen or 
trustees. In a word, we are governed in local, State, and national affairs by 
men whom we elect to serve us in such capacities. We have a constitution 
for the State as well as for the nation ; and, as the latter is the law of the 
land, so the former is the law of just so much of the land as is included in 
the State, and both the National and the State Constitutions have been 
framed and followed for the benefit and welfare of all our citizens." 

" Well, I don't see but that we are a much -governed people for all we 
call ourselves free," said Jack. 

"And yet we are free, my boy," replied his uncle; "free, because we 
are so governed. For freedom is not letting men do as they please ; liberty 
is not the absence of law. It is self-government that makes us free; it is 
law that gives us liberty. This is what the millions who come to make their 
home among us speedily discover, though they so often come with the in- 
sane idea that America is a land without laws, a country without checks. 
With us, power is of the people. But the people delegate that power to 
those who represent them in city councils, in legislative chambers, and in the 
halls of Congress. Liberty has open arms and welcoming hands ; but her 
arm is a protecting power, her hand is strong to defend and swift to strike 
if the law is defied by lawlessness, or the right is menaced by crime. It is 
for you to remember that, boys and girls, when you count up the blessings 
that are so freely granted you, or when you hear, sometimes, of the punish- 
ment meted out to those, who, in high or low places, attempt to do as they 
please, to the hurt or harm of the public good. The State is a strong 
defender; the nation is a generous but a just parent." 



THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 



20I 



Whereupon Jack, patriotic to the core, broke out with strong and musi- 
cal notes which awoke the echoes of the leafy Mall : 

" The union of lakes, the union of lands, 
The union of States none shall sever; 
The union of hearts, the union of hands 
And the flag of our Union forever—" 

" and ever ! " 

sane all the tourists in chorus, 

" The flag of our Union forever ! " 




PRESENT STATE HOUSE, BOSTON. 




A GOOD AMERICAN CITIZEN, PETER COOPER OF NEW YORK. PHILANTHROPIST, PATRIOT, AND WORKING-MAN. 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE CITIZEN 



A Talk on Citizenship — Voters and Citizens — Election-day methods — 
Citizens zvho help and Citizens who hinder — Natives and Natural- 
ization — The best Goverjtnient in the World. 




SUGAR-BOWL BELONGING TO A DINNER-SET PRESENTED TO 
MARTHA WASHINGTON BY GENERAL LAFAYETTE. 



ENLIGHTENED, under the spreading 
trees of the Smithsonian grounds, by this 
talk, as to the kindred relations of city, State, 
and nation, the " tourists " continued their walk 
toward the Capitol. Drawn again to that 
noble building, alike by interest and desire, 
they spent several hours in the study of men 
and manners, both in the dignified Senate 
chamber and in the noisier but equally earnest 
Hall of the Representatives. 

Even in the midst of what seemed some- 
times childishness and often aggression, they 
heard words of wisdom and sentences of weio^ht and moment, as in the 
House they listened to breezy exchanges of questions and answers, and in 
the Senate they heard from Northern and from Southern lips expres- 
sions of loyalty, of affection, and of devotion that made Uncle Tom thank 
God that the old shadow of discord was forever dispelled, and led the young 
people to see that the men who represent the people had faith in the real 
union of the States and were loyal to the principles for which States and 
nation shall forever stand. 

As they left the Capitol by the broad west front, and, at the entrance to 
the Botanical Gardens, waited for the green "cables" that were to carry 
them to their hotel, Roger remarked to Jack : 

" I say, Jack ; would n't you like to go to Congress? " 

"Well, Roger, my son," replied Jack, " I think I should like to have just 




204 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

a hack at things. I beheve I could straighten out one or two of them quite 
as well as some of those fellows at work under the big dome." 

"I 'm afraid it would be but a 'hack,' boy Jack," laughed Uncle Tom. 
"The well-balanced law-maker becomes so only through experience and 
growth. The newly-made congressman often comes here with just your 

desire, — to have a 'hack' at things, — and the 
man or the boy who 'hacks' very often gets his 
fing-ers cut. You mieht come here, as does he, 
honestly full of plans for the bettering of your 
fellow-citizens and the good of your country, but 
you would speedily find how little you really 
knew and how necessary it is, if one would ac- 
complish good results, to work toward those 
results amid the hints that help and the hin- 
drances that arouse one. For, you see, it needs 
alike the stirrup of opportunity and the spur of 

THE CITIZKN, KOBtKI MOKKIS, OF ^'b;^Nt.^L- ., . r11*1 C 

VAMA, WHO PLEDGED HIS FORTUNE IN THE oppositiou to ode successiully ui tlic race lor 

CAUSE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. , , . . ,, 

leadership. 

" You talk as if it were some kind of a circus, Uncle Tom," said Marian, 
" in which the best rider gets the flag and the cheers." 

"Well, in one way it is, Marian," her uncle replied. "Merit gets to 
the front here as in all the struo-orles of life. There comes our ' cable.' 
Get aboard, boys and girls. I 'm as hungry as an oflice-seeker." 

Their talk during dinner turned upon the men they had heard and seen 
that clay in Congress, and Bert remarked : 

" You say. Uncle Tom, that the choice of those legislators at the Capitol 
is one of the duties of citizenship. What is an American citizen?" 

"A direct question, Bert," responded his uncle. "Come, Marian, tell 
us ; what is an American citizen ? " 

" Oh — just a horrid man," the girl replied. 

" Pardon me, mademoiselle," Uncle Tom said, with a low bow, " I forgot 
your pronounced views. But I think you are wrong in this instance." 

"Why, how can I be, Uncle Tom?" Marian exclaimed. " .Surely a wo- 
man is not a citizen, is she ? " 

" Yes. I am a citizen ; thou art a citizen ; he is a citizen ; we are all 
citizens," her uncle conjugated, — "all the men, women, and children who are 
American by birth, by adoption, or by law." 

"Oh, see here. Uncle Tom, we 've caught you napping now," cried Jack. 
"A citizen is a voter. Women and children cannot vote." 

"Did I say they could?" returned Uncle Tom. "I refer you to the' 



THE CITIZEN 



205 



Constitution, Master Jack. The fourteenth amendment to that immortal 
document distinctly says: 'All persons' — mark the word, Jack — 'all persons 
born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction 
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they re- 
side.' You can't go back on the Constitution, now, can you?" 

" But I thought only a voter was a citizen," said Christine. 

" That is your mistake, my dear," replied Uncle Tom. " But it is a nat- 
ural one. It lies in this — all voters are citizens, but all citizens are not voters. 
All persons, irrespective of age or sex, who are born or naturalized in the 
United States, have the rights of citizenship. But they do not all exercise 
the duties of citizenship." 

"Well, if we have rights, I don't see why we should n't have duties," 
protested Marian. " I 'm sure I should be willing to. If I have a right to 
be in any place, it is my duty to behave myself, and if — " 

" Ah ! kindly remember that, Miss, the next time you go into my room," 
observed her brother. 

"And if so," continued Marian, unheeding Jack's interruption, "is it not 
my duty, also, to put things straight if they are out of order ? " and. she 
darted a triumphant look at disconcerted Jack. 

"There 's a Roland for your Oliver, Jack," laughed Uncle Tom. 

" ' Out of order ' ? Hear her ! " cried Jack. " What she calls disorder is 
just my order," 

" I don't doubt it in the least," said Uncle Tom, with an emphasis that 
Jack seemed to comprehend. " But Marian's case is well taken, though it 
does not precisely cover our point in dispute. She holds that being a citizen 
of her home it is her duty to keep that home in order — " 

" Even if she upsets my room to do so," put in Jack. 

"In one sense, perhaps," said Uncle Tom, "that is an invasion of the 
liberty of the individual. But, after all, rights and duties are not identical. 
In this matter of citizenship, for instance, the idea of voting sprang from 
fighting." 

"From fighting?" exclaimed Christine. 

"Yes — or rather from not fighting," repHed Uncle Tom. "In the old 
days of blood and blows, the smaller or weaker party would sometimes de- 
cide by voice — in other words, by vote — whether to fight or not to fight. 
So, you see, only the fighters could be voters, and as all able-bodied men 
were fighters, or warriors, of course the suffrage — that is, the right to put 
down the broken piece of pottery that then stood for a vote — was given only 
to the men ; and it has remained with them to this day." 

" But not the broken piece of pottery, Uncle Tom," said Marian. 



2o6 THE STpRY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

" No, that has changed," repHed her uncle. " At one time, tiny balls 
were used, for which the Italian name was ballotta, or little balls. From 
this we get our word ballot, which now means a ticket used in voting. The 
latest and best form of such a ticket is what is called the Australian system 
of balloting, because its form came to us from the English colony of Aus- 
tralia. It is prepared in secret. The voter is supplied with a printed list of 
all candidates, arranged alphabetically. He takes this into a little stall or 
closet and with a lead-pencil marks a criss-cross (like X this) against his 
choice for the officers nominated. He folds the sheet over, slips it into the 
ballot-box, and his duty is done." 

" But why do they need to be so secret and particular?" asked Christme. 

"There are bad men everywhere, my dear," responded Uncle Tom — 
" men who abuse their privileges, do unmanly acts, and, from selfishness or 
ereed, either buv or sell the rig-ht to vote which is oriven them bv the Con- 
stitution. Even where men are not really bad, they are easily influenced, 
and so, to guard against all such possibilities, voting is made a personal and 
secret affair, while the ' machinery ' employed runs ' things smoothly and 
quickly, and saves time." 

" Then that, I suppose, is why voters must register before they can vote," 
said Bert. 

" Yes," replied his uncle; "it saves time, guards against annoying delays, 
and, especially, prevents the crime of repeating, as it is called — that is, vot- 
ing more than once for the sake of influencincr the result." 

" Why, do people ever do that ? " asked Christine. 

"Unfortunately some do, my dear," replied Uncle Tom; "for, as I told 
you, there are bad men or unprincipled men everywhere. A result secured 
by repeating is a living lie. It is our duty to build a barrier against evil in 
all its forms, and dishonesty in elections is one of the methods by which 
crime menaces liberty. To prevent what are called ' corrupt practices ' in 
elections, every citizen entitled to vote is obliged to have his name — " 

''His, not her, you notice. Miss Marian," Jack interlined. But Uncle 
Tom heard him. 

"Yes, 'her' in some States," he said. "The 'citizen entitled to vote' 
means every male citizen over twenty -one years of age. But in certain 
States, for certain declared objects, and in at least four States and Terri- 
tories for every object and office, the citizen-voter means men and women 
alike." 

" I did n't know that," said Jack, a trifle disconcerted. 

"Jack," said Marian, mischievously, "will you join with me in singing 
'The Morning Light is Breaking'?" 





^^i<:yy^'^^h^^ 




A GOOD AMERICAN CITUEN, PATRIOT, ORATOR, AND MOLDER OF PUBLIC OPINION. 



2o8 



THE ^TORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Four, did you say, Mr. Dunlap ? " inquired Christine, with interest. 
" Four States and Territories now permit women to vote in all elections," 
replied Uncle Tom, "and nineteen States and Territories have, as it is termed, 

' given them the suffrage ' 
in certain specified cases 
— such as those that touch 
the public schools, the 
liquor traffic, and town 
improvement." 

" Now, come back to 
the registration laws, 
please," said Bert, always 
"sticking to the ques- 
tion." 

" That 's so ; where 
was I ? " said Uncle Tom. 
"You said," prompted 
Bert, "that every citizen 
was obliged to have his 
name recorded." 

" Oh, yes," Uncle Tom 
went on; "he is obliged 
to have his name, age, 
and residence put on rec- 
ord, so that, when elec- 
tion-day comes round, 
the names of voters can be checked off as their owners appear at the ballot- 
box. This is but a safeguard that no honest man or woman can object to 
or hold to be an invasion of their personal liberty." 

" Who has charge of the polls. Uncle Tom ? " Bert inquired. 
" Officials specially appointed for the duty, and known as poll clerks and 
inspectors," his uncle replied. "They are selected, in equal numbers, from 
the two leading political parties, so as to insure fairness and squareness." 

"But everything has all been made ready beforehand, has it not?" asked 
Roger. 

"As far as the machinery of voting goes — yes," responded Uncle Tom. 
"The steps to an election are gradual ; but a certain amount of machinery is 
necessary to avoid delays and complications. As election time approaches, 
the people talk over the men best fitted for the offices to be filled ; but they 
do nothing until the leaders of each political organization summon what is 




A GOOD AMERICAN CITIZEN, WILLIAM W. CORCORAN, OF WASHINGTON, 
WHO USED HIS WEALTH TO WISE AND HELPFUL ENDS. 



THE CITIZEN 



209 



called a caucus, or primary meeting. This preliminary meeting of voters 
selects certain men to represent their sentiments in a nominating convention 
composed of delegates from the caucuses. The nominating convention 
meets and selects men whom it declares to be best fitted for the offices. 
Each political party holds a nominating convention, and thus candidates, 
belonging to the different parties, are presented to the people for their 
suffi-ages, as it is called. On election-day, the names of these candidates 
appear on the printed ballots, and the voters deposit in the ballot-box the 
slips containing the names they prefer. At a specified hour — generally at 
sunset — the voting stops; the polls are declared closed; the ballots are 
sorted and counted, and the men who have received the highest number of 
votes are declared to have been elected by the people to serve in the offices 
for which they were nominated." 

" That all sounds simple enough," said Roger. 

"Yes, it sounds simple enough," responded Uncle Tom, "but there are 
many complications ; and much political machinery is set in motion before 
a decision is reached. These details are really interesting ; some of them 
are wise and just ; some of them are unwise and questionable ; but all of 
them are worth studying, and the selection and election of our rulers — who 
are also our public servants — are matters which all of you, boys and girls 
alike, will, I trust, study up and try to understand. For their selection is 
one of the chief duties of 
American citizens." 

"That 's one of the 
things that will make me 
glad to be twenty-one," 
declared Bert. 

And Jack added, "Yes, 
it must make you feel 
really a man to have the 
right to say who shall be 
placed in power." 

".It does — or should, 
Jack — though too many 
of us do not fully appre- 
ciate our privileges as free- 
men. Far too many American citizens fail to look upon voting as it should 
be considered — a sacred duty upon which the peace, the prosperity, and the 
welfare of our country depend." 

"That is what makes us the sovereign people, is it not?" Roger asked. 




THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART IN WASHINGTON. 



2IO 



THE §TORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



" Yes," said Uncle Tom; " for with us lies the power of choice and crea- 
tion — the right of criticism and censure, of honor and approval. Election 
Day is the American day of reward. Then every man, rich or poor, high 

or low, is equal ; 
then the President 
and the porter, the 
senator and the farm- 
hand stand on the 
same footing, and 
the word or wish of 
one is no 
than that of 
other." 

"It makes me 
think of that poem 
of Whittier's," said Roger. "What does he call it — 'The Poor Voter on 
Election Day ' ? " 

"Yes; can you repeat it, Roger?" Uncle Tom asked. 
" I think I can remember it," said Roger, modestly. "I '11 try," and the 
New England boy recalled the inspiring lines of the New England poet : 




greater 



the 



AUTOGRAPH OF PETER COOPER. 



" The proudest now is but my peer, 

The highest not more high; 
To-day, of all the weary year, 

A king of men am I. 
To-day, alike are great and small, 

The nameless and the known ; 
My palace is the people's hall, 

The ballot-box my throne ! 

" Who serves to-day upon the list 

Beside the served shall stand ; 
Alike the brown and wrinkled fist, 

The gloved and dainty hand ! 
The rich is level with the poor, 

The weak is strong to-day ; 
And sleekest broadcloth counts no more 

Than homespun frock of gray. 



" To-day let pomp and vain pretense 
My stubborn right abide; 
I set a plain man's common sense 
Against the pedant's pride. 



THE CITIZEN 2 I I 

To-day shall simple manhood try 

The strength of gold and land; 
The wide world has not wealth to buy 

The power of my right hand ! 

" While there 's a grief to seek redress, 

Or balance to adjust, 
Where weighs our living manhood less 

Than Mammon's vilest dust? — 
While there 's a right to need my vote, 

A wrong to sweep away — 
Up ! clouted knee and ragged coat ; 

A man 's a man to-day ! " 

" That 's fine, is n't it ? " cried Jack, who always appreciated good poetry. 

" Fine, indeed," responded Uncle Tom ; " and a true picture, too. Jack — 
even if we cannot forget the wrong practices that bad men indulge in, the 
tricks and wiles of politicians, the indifference that makes shirkers of those 
who should be earnest, and the greed that leads thoughtless or un-Ameri- 
can men into corruption and crime." 

"And I suppose there are citizens," said Bert, "who are just as helpful 
and public-spirited as possible, even though they are not President, con- 
gressman, department-chief, or office-holder ? " 

"Millions of them," answered Uncle Tom. " It is this silent service and 
practical patriotism that make our Republic endure. The citizen has as 
great a duty and as much demand for courage laid upon him as any soldier 




THE IMMIGRANTS FIRST SIGHT OF NEW YORK HARBOR. 



or sailor who has ever faced the foes of the Republic on land and sea. By 
practical work among his fellows, by shaping public opinion, by showing 
office-holders how they can be citizens rather than politicians, by willingly 
sacrificing when duty demands, by using the wealth or the powers that God 
has given him for the benefit, the advantage, the bettering, or the salvation 




'THE IMMIGRANT, COMING TO THE LAND OF LIBERTY, IS FULL OF ANTICIPATION AND DESIRE. 



THE CITIZEN 213 

of his fellow-men, the true American citizen has, since the foundation of the 
Republic, given endurance and permanence to the national fabric." 

" Was not that Mr. Corcoran, who gave to Washington the splendid 
art-gallery in Pennsylvania Avenue that we visited the other day, what you 
call a public-spirited citizen ? " asked Christine. 

" Yes ; William W. Corcoran by his gifts to the national capital made 
equal proof of his philanthropy and his public spirit," replied Uncle Tom. 
" So, too, did George Peabody, whose gifts to charity and education are 
world-famous ; and of equal benefit to their native land were George W. 
Childs, the Philadelphia editor, and Peter Cooper, the New York merchant, 
neither of whom waited till death overtook them to make their names the 
synonyms of generosity, philanthropy, and patriotism. In other lines of ac- 
tion, but equally lavish of their gifts of wealth, eloquence, and brain power, 
stand such American citizens as Robert Morris, the financier, who backed 
the tottering cause of the American Revolution by pledging his entire for- 
tune to its success, making the nation possible, and winning, for himself, an 
imperishable name ; Starr King, who, literally working himself to death by 
voice and pen, saved California to the Union in the days of discord; Henry 
Ward Beecher, whose fearless words for justice and for right kept England 
neutral in those same threatening times ; Horace Greeley, America's ablest 
editor, in whom, indeed, like the apostle of old, there was no guile : these and 
scores of just as self-sacrificing and just as loyal, though less famous men, 
have held our Republic firm to the principles it upholds, and kept it march- 
ing in the van of progress, purity, and freedom." 

"Then they rule by force of example, don't they?" said Christine, "and 
should teach bad citizens to be good ones." 

" I wonder, if women had all the privileges of men," mused Marian, 
" whether they would be led into the wrong-doing that the bad citizens are 
sometimes guilty of I don't believe they would." 

"You just wait, Maid Marian," said Jack. "Suppose you did vote and 
I should offer you a silk dress if 3^ou 'd vote for me, and then Bert should bid 
higher and promise you a whole outfit if you 'd vote for him — what would 
you do then ? " 

" What would I do then ? " said Marian scornfully ; " well, Mr. Jack, I 'd 
just ' scratch ' — is n't that what you call it. Uncle Tom ? — both your names 
off my ballot — and vote for Roger." 

"That is the voter's right, and Marian would be justified and upheld," 
said Uncle Tom. 

" It is too bad, is n't it, that any American should be so unpatriotic as to 
be bought ? " Christine declared. 



214 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"It is worse than unpatriotic, my dear; it is criminal," Uncle Tom replied. 
" But we must rejoice that, after all, the bad side of politics is but its cloudy 
fringe, and that most of us try to act according to conscience. For even a 
partizan may be conscientious. .So fierce a politician as Jack, for instance. 




TWO GOOD AMERICAN CITIZENS, GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN AND HIS BROTHER, SENATOR JOHN SHERMAN. 



will, I know, act only from the best and purest motives when the time comes 
to him for decision and action." 

" I shall certainly, Uncle Tom," Jack declared soberly. "With me it is 
going to be principles, not men." 

"That is the only way to decide," said Uncle Tom. " We must remem- 
ber what citizenship really means to us. It is twofold. It means allegiance 
and protection. You give your allegiance, and the State, in return, grants 
you full protection. It is for you to see that your allegiance is freely and 
gladly given ; for the privileges of citizenship are great beyond calculation. 



THE CITIZEN 



215 



Do you not remember Paul's proud answer to the Roman captain- — or 
tribune ? " 

''When they were going to scourge him at Jerusalem?" queried Chris- 
tine, eagerly; "I do." 

" Let us hear it, Christine," said Uncle Tom. "To me it has always 
seemed a most dramatic incident." 

Whereupon Christine, who was a good Bible scholar, dipped into her 
memory: "And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centu- 
rion that stood by, ' Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman 
and uncondemned ? ' When the centurion heard that, he went and told the 
chief captain, saying, 'Take heed what thou doest; for this man is a Roman.' 
Then the chief captain came and said unto him, ' Tell me, art thou a 
Roman ? ' He said, ' Yea.' And the chief captain answered, ' With a great 
sum obtained I this freedom.' And Paul said, ' But I was free born ! ' Then 
straightway they departed from him which should have examined him ; and 
the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and 
because he had bound him." 

"Well done, Christine," said Uncle Tom, while the other "tourists" 
nodded approvingly. "It was Paul's proud declaration that he had the birth- 
right of a Roman citizen that made those who were free only by purchase 
afraid to touch him. The privileges of free citizenship were prized in 
those days far above other possessions. To-day in free America they are 
mightier and nobler than were those of Rome. American citizenship gives 
us all the rights of freemen. We cannot lose them save by our own 
carelessness or crimes," 

"W^hat do those rights include. Uncle Tom?" asked Bert. 

"Everything, Bert — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," his 
uncle declared. " American citizenship gives us civil and religious liberty ; 
it gives us freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of the mails ; it 
makes every man's home his castle, into which no one may enter uninvited ; 
it gives us the rights of citizens and voters into whatever State in the Union 
we may remove seeking a new home ; it secures to us the protection of the 
United States wherever in the wide world our feet may wander; and before 
the words, ' I am an American ! ' tyrants dare not tyrannize and oppression 
stays its hand. How precious, then, should be this birthright! How low, 
and mean, and base is it for any one of us to barter that heritage, as did 
Esau of old, for a mess of pottage — that is, to place personal wants, per- 
sonal safety, personal comfort, and personal pride above this right of free- 
dom which our fathers fought to secure, to establish, and to maintain." 

" But there are lots of people in America now whose fathers did n't fight 



2l6 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

to make the nation free," said Jack. '* How can they be expected to make 
good citizens ? " 

"You mean our naturahzed citizens, I suppose, or their fathers," said 
Uncle Tom. 

" Yes, sir," assented Jack. 

"What does it mean to be 'naturalized'?" inquired Marian. 

"To be placed on the same footing as a natural citizen," Uncle Tom an- 
swered. " A foreigner, after living here five years, can say that he does 
not wish to be any longer a citizen or subject of the land of his birth, but 
does desire to be a citizen of the United States. So he goes before a judge 
and takes an oath to be true and loyal to the Government of the United 
States. This makes him a citizen, and makes citizens of his wife and all 
his children who are not yet twenty-one years old, giving them all the privi- 
leges that a natural-born American has, save' one." 

" And that is ? " queried Bert. 

" He can never be President of the United States," Uncle Tom replied. 

" Right enough," said Jack. " ' Put none but Americans on guard to- 
night,' so somebody said once, and I say 'amen' to that." 

"Do not be selfishly American, Jack," returned his uncle. "We give 
all men a chance in the Republic. But in this matter of the presidency we 
cannot be too particular. Our Chief Magistrate must be an American to 
the core, and not all foreign-born citizens are this. The old loves and the old 
attachments formed in boyhood in the homes beyond the sea often grow 
stronger or come back again as men grow older. The emigrant in the crowded 
steerage coming to the land of liberty is full of anticipation and desire ; but, 
even when success and station have been reached by him, he is, in the new 
home he has made, ever longing for his old home, and, forgetful of the land 
where his labor has brought him comfort and competence, he cannot part 
from his presence the memories and associations'of the past. Our President 
must have no past save that of an American." 

" I demand the previous question, Mr. Speaker," insisted Jack. " How 
can foreign-born citizens be expected to make good Americans, anyhow ? " 

" By the very composition of the Republic that welcomes them, shelters 
them, and makes free men of them," replied his uncle, "and by the force of 
our examples, Jack — yours and mine, and that of every native American 
who can say with Paul, ' I was free born.' The Government of the United 
States is based upon the equality of all men before the law. To prevent this 
equality from being turned to wrong ends by designing men, or lost through 
dissension and ignorance, is our chief duty as American citizens. A free and 
a fair ballot is the best means to this end. For, thoug^h our Government 



THE CITIZEN 



21 7 



may make mistakes, as is often the case when too many cooks take a hand 
at making the broth, we have the abiHty and the right to correct mistakes 
and to change or criticize our cooks. With aU our shortcomings, with all 
our differences of opinion, with all our selfishness, and with all our boasting, 
it is still true that we have the best government in the world — " 

" Hear, hear ! " said Jack, in his energetic whisper ; and Uncle Tom 
went on without a break : 

" — the most wise, the most conservative, the most progressive, the most 
permanent. It, will lead all the world our way at last, if but you, boys and 
girls, and those who are with you, will be, when you grow up, loyal, true, 
devoted, earnest, and patriotic American citizens." 

"'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' " quoted Jack. 

" It is, indeed," said his uncle; "and patriotism means doing one's best 
toward making his country worth the loving and worth the living in, by 
helping it to become better in every way — broad, noble. Christian, imperial^ 
progressive, free. Do you but work, as you all can, toward this end and 
you will help to hasten the fulfilment of the poet's dream when he 

' Dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, 
Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be.' 

For he saw what you can help to bring about — the reign of universal peace, 
universal brotherhood, and universal law, when 

' The war-drum throbs no longer and the battle-flags are furled 
In the Parliament of Men, the Federation of the World.' 

That Federation is coming some day, and the dream of universal brotherhood 
must be realized. Well, have you finished your ice-cream ? My coffee has 
grown cold with talking. Waiter ! bring me a cup of hot black coffee, please. 
There ; now, boys and girls, let us take a stroll as far as Thomas Circle." 




11,/^ 







THOMAS CIRCLE. 



CHAPTER XV 



THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 

''Vou caiit see everything,'^ says Uncle Tom — What his Tourists had seen 
in Washington — What Washington is a7td why it exists — A unique 

town Who dreamed it, who planned it, aiid how it grew — Our Show 

City and an historic one. 

''"P^HE day of departure drew near. 
" Uncle Tom's tourists," personally 
conducted and capitally ciceroned, had 
seen Washington thoroughly, intelli- 
gently, and delightfully. 

" Not that you could expect to 
see everything here," Uncle Tom re- 
marked. "That, I neither hoped nor 
intended. You have, I suppose, 
skipped many things, places, and per- 
sons notably worth seeing. There 
are hundreds of details in government 
work and methods that might be 
studied to advantage ; there are count- 
less things, both curious and enter- 
taining, I should like to hunt up for you 
in library, museum, safe, and alcove ; 
there are reams of really historic documents worth investigating that are hied 
and docketed in department bureaus, closets, and pigeon-holes; there are many 
creative shops and workrooms that might yet be inspected, where govern- 
ment belongings, from cannons and cartridges to pulp and postage-stamps, 
are made ; there are places of minor interest really worth visiting, if only 
one could see all and know all. But one can't. Life is too short ; feet will 
get tired ; brains wiU get to buzzing ; there is a limit even to the endurance 
of wide-awake boys and girls. And you have fathers and mothers at home. 




2 20 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



to whom I am responsible for your health and happiness. So, as the end 
must come, it may as well come speedily. To-morrow we say good-by to 
Washington. But you have seen a great deal." 




THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION AND THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



They certainly had. . They had delved in vaults and crypts ; they had 
climbed into domes and monuments. They had "done" the departments, 
" covered" the Capitol, and "seen" the city. They had sailed the Potomac, 
climbed the heights of Arlington, roamed the grounds of Mount Vernon, 
and, afoot, awheel, or " a-cable," as Marian said, they had seen the squares 
and gardens, the streets and suburbs of the National Capital. 

In the splendid National Museum, crammed with relics and wonders, 
they had feasted their eyes on historic or beautiful things; in its near neigh- 
bor, the Smithsonian Institution, — the gift of an English gentleman to the 
American Republic, — they had seen many a marvel;, and studied hundreds 
of rare and curious things. They had seen the workmen "jacketing a 
gun " in the Naval Gun Factory ; at the Marine Barracks they had wit- 
nessed the morninor miard mount, and heard a mornino- concert of the 
famous Marine Band. They were familiar with the President's grounds and 
the Capitol grounds ; they had seen all the fine monuments to soldiers and 
sailors, statesmen and patriots that adorn the city squares and circles. 
They had seen where Lincoln was assassinated, the mean little house in 
which he died, and the spot where Garfield fell. They had seen the store 



THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 



221 



of books in the departmental and special libraries, and had visited the future 
home of the mighty collection of a million books and pamphlets — the splen- 
did new Library of Congress, facing, with its golden dome, the east front 
of the great Capitol. 

They were fascinated, impressed, almost awed by the grandeur of the 
buildings, the beauty of the "environment," the air of greatness and of 
power that make the capital city of the nation its pride, its glory, and its 
central point. 

Sated with sight-seeing, they wished now to know just how and why the 
city came to be. 

Uncle Tom was bombarded with questions, and on this last day in the 
capital, as they all sat in their favorite haven of rest and shade beneath the 
big trees of Lafayette Park, he endeavored to give arrangement and form to 
his reply. 

"Every nation, you know," he said, "must have its seat of government 
— a place where king, council, or president resides and dispenses justice as 
the head of the nation. Such a place is called the national capital." 




AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE WASHINGTON NAVY-YARD. 



" From caput, the head, because it is the head or chief city of the nation, 
I suppose," put in Bert. 

" But Washington is not the chief city of our nation," objected Roger. 
" Not by a long chalk," echoed Jack. " What do you call New York ? " 



222 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"West Brooklyn — so I have heard it called, since so many people 
moved across the big bridge," said Roger. 

"I call it the place where mother lives," said Christine, with just the 
shadow of a sigh. For Christine was described by her friends as " a real 







THE NEW BUILDING FOR THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY. 



mother-girl," and, so Marian declared, would have been homesick even in 
Washington if she had not been too busy to indulge in such luxuries. 

But Jack scorned both the gibe and the sentiment. 

" No, sir," he said. " New York is the metropolis of America." 

"And second to Boston — the seat of learning, intelligence, and culture^ 
and the hub of the universe," asserted Roger. 

" Huh ! Boston ! " cried Jack. 

" Huh ! New York ! " retorted Roger. 



THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 223, 

Whereupon the respective champions of size and culture would have 
fought out their case most doughtily had not Uncle Tom dropped down as 
umpire. 

"Cry 'quits!' boys, or give Chicago and Philadelphia a chance," he 
said. " It should be a fair held and no favor when the Knights of Civic 
Pride couch lances in honor of the Queen City — whichever she maybe. 
But that is not the question now before the house. Whichever American, 
city stands at the top, Washington is the capital of the nation, and to her we 
must all doff hats in salute. You know her now. Is there one of you who 
will not sturdily maintain that she is worthy such salute ? From the hem 
of her green gown, trailing in Potomac's waters, to her crown and diadem of 
the great white dome, she sits an empress — and yet lives enslaved." 

" Oh, see here. Uncle Tom ; go easy ; go easy, do ! " protested practical 
Jack. " You reel it off like a poet ; but, when you talk of her being enslaved, 
I call it — well — to put it mildly — poet's license." 

"Well, perhaps I was just a trifle rhetorical," Uncle Tom admitted. 
"And yet I spoke the truth. The city of Washington presents to the world 
the singular spectacle of the capital of a great republic governed by an 
absolute monarchy." 

" No ! is that so ? " cried Bert. 

" A monarchy ! " exclaimed unbelieving Jack. " Then who 's the king ? " 

"Congress is king; the American people is king," replied Uncle Tom. 
" Washington, the national capital, is the creature of the National Govern- 
ment. Its inhabitants are practically disfranchised, for they have no voice in 
the management of affairs. They have absolutely no vote either on national 
or local questions. Congress collects the taxes. Congress pays the bills, 
Congress makes the laws. The schools, the streets, the parks, the affairs, 
and the people of Washington are ' run ' by Congress and administered by 
a board of three commissioners appointed by the President." 

" But is n't that most un-American, Uncle Tom ? " asked Bert, still greatly 
astonished at what he heard. 

"Why, that 's just what our forefathers 'kicked' against," said Jack. 
" It 's taxation without representation." 

"At first sight it might seem, as Bert says, un-American," Uncle Tom 
admitted. "But remember — Washingfton is the seat of grovernment ; its 
affairs are matters in which the Government, for whose convenience it exists, 
is more directly concerned than any one else. It is therefore, as I told you, 
the creature and protege of the Federal Government, and it exists for the 
people of the whole country ; they really govern it through their repre- 
sentatives in Conerress." 



224 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 




«l 



" But how did it come to be 
here ? " Marian asked. 

" It is really the coming true 
of a dream of George Wash- 
ington's," replied Uncle Tom. 

" But they tell us at school, 

'George Washington was no 

dreamer,'" put in Jack. 

" Sometimes, Master Jack, you are altogether too practical," Uncle Tom 

•declared, just a bit nonplussed. "When I called it a dream I meant, of 

course, a well-conceived and admirable plan." 

" And you can dream a plan. Jack Dunlap," said Marian, with conviction. 
" It has been said of the city of Washington," went on Uncle Tom, "that 
it is a city planned and built solely for the purposes of government, named 
after the one man in American history who himself seemed likewise planned 
and built solely for the purposes of government. In fact, this same shrewd 
observer declares that the plan of Washington the city reminds one of the 
face of Washington the man ; for it has large, quiet features, calm symme- 
try, and singularly unobtrusive individuality. We have no other city like it, 
as we have had no other man just like the great patriot from whom it takes 
its name." 

"Now I wonder," mused Jack, "just what city you look like, Bert? 
Perhaps Cork — you 're so light, you know ! " 

"And you are so fresh, dear boy," retorted Bert, politely but pertinently, 
" that I should say you were like London in the days of the Puritans — you 
need a psalter." 

When sufficiently recovered from the full weight of this retort. Jack asked 
his uncle : 



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PLAN OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. 



A. Executive Mansion. B. State, War, and Navy Department Building. C. Treasury. D. Patent Office. E. Post-office Department. F. Wash, 
ington Monument. G. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. H. Department of Agriculture. I. Smithsonian Institution. K. National Museum. 
L. Market. M. Congressional Cemetery. N. Washington Observatory. O. Analostan Island. 



THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 22/ 

"Well, how did the dream materialize, Uncle Tom?" 
"In the opening years of the national existence," replied his uncle, 
" Congress was like the Arab — a wanderer. It met in various places, and 
no one town or city could really be called the seat of government until the 
year 1800. The question of just where the national capital should be was 
almost serious. There were rivalries among the States ; for each one wished 
the honor of having within its borders the capital city, and all were jealous 
lest the preference of location should give to the State determined upon an 
importance that would make it 'stuck up ' and arrogant. Many places, some 
now almost unknown, had the honor of being offered as the permanent seat 
of government ; New York, for instance, presented the town of Kingston 
as entitled to consideration ; Morrisania, the home of the Morrises, was also 
offered. Maryland supported the claims of Annapolis, and of Charlestown, 
at the head of Chesapeake Bay ; New Jersey's legislature offered the town- 
ship of Nottingham, Elizabeth, Trenton, or Princeton. Williamsburg, then 
Virginia's capital, and Germantown, Philadelphia's 'annex,' also presented 
their claims. Other places were offered, and very liberal were the induce- 
ments tendered by each. I remember one — Princeton, I think — where Con- 
gress was assured that the comfort of the ' inner man ' would be especially 
looked after, and ' fish, crabs, and lobsters at least three days in the week— 
the lobsters and crabs to be brought to Princeton alive' — were temptingly 
hinted at in the event of that place being selected. Washington knew 
that men and States were apt to be selfish ; he foresaw the difficulty of se- 
lection, and he felt that the only solution of the problem lay in compromise. 
He advocated the setting aside of a tract of land as a ' neutral territory,' that 
should belong to no State in particular, but to all the States in general. 
After much discussion and considerable 'back talk,' as you boys say, this de- 
cision was taken and the offer of Maryland and Virginia to cede to the Fed- 
eral Government a certain section of land on the Potomac was accepted. 
The Federal territory, known for a long time afterward as the Territory 
of Columbia and nowadays as the District of Columbia, was ceded to the 
Government, and, in the very region over which Washington as boy and 
youth had hunted, fished, trapped, and surveyed, a city was laid out and 
built to order. To this city was given the name of the one man whom all 
Americans united to honor, and the capital of the nation was called the city 
of Washington. Washington himself, however, as modest as he was great, 
never associated his own name with it, but in speaking and in writing he 
always called it The Federal City." 

"Was it really built to order, like St. Petersburg, Mr. Dunlap ? " asked 
Christine. 



2 28 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

" Perhaps not quite so autocratically, but quite as deliberately and with 
as definite a design," Uncle Tom replied. "As a matter of fact the city grew 
slowly. A Frenchman who had fought for American freedom, and whom 
Washington regarded as a man of ability, planned out the new city. The 
scale upon which he proceeded was so generous, so colossal, and, apparently, 
so impossible that men laughed while they admired, and ridiculed even while 
they approved. In his plan, L'Enfant — " 

" L'Enfant — the infant? Was that the Frenchman's name. Uncle Tom? 
How funny ! " cried Marian. 

"I think it most appropriate," said Bert. "The city was an infant at 
the start — the same as the nation it represented. And look at it now ! " 
and he swept a comprehensive hand, as if to embrace the whole city in his 
observation. 

" Just so; it was quite in the nature of a prophecy," Uncle Tom admitted. 
"Well, L'Enfant took Capitol Hill as the center of his scheme. This was 
to be the hub of his wheel, and from it the streets and avenues were to radi- 
ate like the spokes of a wheel, intersected by cross streets. So we get the 
avenues, with some of which you are so familiar. Pennsylvania (called here, 
you know. The Avenue), Massachusetts, New York, Louisiana are some 
of the spokes of the wheel. But, as I told you, the city grew slowly. In 
1800, when the Government took possession of its capital, the unfinished 
White House stood at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, an4 the uncom- 
pleted Capitol at the other. And this splendid Pennsylvania Avenue was 
only a muddy roadway cut through an underbrush of alders. The town 
then, and for years after, was simply a straggling. Southern village, with- 
out beauty, finish, comfort, convenience, or society. I wonder if I cannot 
recall Thomas Moore's poetical sneer — " 

"What, the Moore's Melodies man?" asked Jack. 

"Yes," replied Uncle Tom; "he visited America at the beginning of the 
century, and his sneer at our capital city, with its unkempt streets, its huts 
of houses, its unfinished public buildings, and its general frontier-like appear- 
ance, was but an expression of the world's ridicule of what it appeared to 
be — like the Republic itself — a pretentious impossibility. Moore described 
Washington, which he saw in 1804, ^s — 

'An embryo capital where Fancy sees 
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees; 
Where second- sighted seers the plain adorn 
With fanes unbuilt, and heroes yet unborn. 
Though naught but woods and Jefferson they see 
Where streets should run and sages ought to be.'" 



THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 



231 



has splendid public buildings, and a society that is said to be delightful by 
those who know it, though it is largely what we call ' cosmopolitan ' — that is, 
of all grades, sorts, and conditions — " 

" And therefore American," put in Jack. 




fi 



IN DIPLOMATIC SOCIETY. 



"And therefore American," Uncle Tom repeated; "from the reception 
at the White House to the literary club at the professor's; from the social 
party at the bureau clerk's to the grand dinner at the legation ; and from the 
cake-walk in the southeast section to the five-o'clock tea at the Senator's." 

" All kinds, are n't there ? " commented Bert. 

" I speak for the dinner at the legation," said Marian. 

" I choose a look at that cake-walk," said Jack. 

" I think I 'd like to be the girl who gives the five-o'clock tea," said 
Christine. 



232 THE ^TORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 

"The Senator's daughter, eh?" said Jack. "Well, you 're modest,, 
ma'am." 

"I 'm sure my father would make as good -a senator as any of them,"' 
Christine declared loyally. 

"Oh, better, better, I 'm sure," cried Jack. "Send me a card for the tea, 
won't you? If it were yours, of course, I should like it better than the cake- 
walk." 

" I don't see but that the Frenchman's ' infant,' " said Marian, " has grown 
into a very healthy and promising child. Uncle Tom." 

" That is just what it is, my dear," said her uncle, — " the child of the Gov- 
ernment, brought up by hand, perhaps, but grown at last into an elegant 
young person who invites all the world to her five-o'clock tea. She is a de- 
lightful and most attractive hostess, as finished as the towering monument 
in her back yard, and as graceful as the great Liberty poised on the superb 
dome at her front door. I think that, as Americans, we may well be proud 
of our central city — our nation's capital." 

" But it is n't exactly our central city, is it? " -asked Bert. 

" No ; not as related to the geographical centers of population or posi- 
tion," said Uncle Tom. " But it does stand midway between North and 
South, and so my adjective is, at least, allowable. As regards distance, 
Washington is about two hundred and thirty miles from New York, four 
hundred and fifty from Boston, six hundred and seventy-three from Savan- 
nah, eleven hundred from New Orleans, five hundred and fifty from Cincin- 
nati, eight hundred from Chicago, nine hundred from St. Louis, eighteen 
hundred from Denver, thirty-one hundred from San Francisco, thirteen hun- 
dred and fifty from Key West in Florida, and forty-five hundred from Sitka 
'in Alaska." 

" That 's a good way to show our size, is n't it? " said Jack. " It makes 
me think of a song I remember — I don't know who wrote it: 

' See our prairies, sky-surrounded ! 
See our sunlit mountain-chains! 
See our waving woods, unbounded, 

And our cities on the plains ! 
See the oceans kiss our strand, 

Oceans stretched from pole to pole! 
See our mighty lakes expand, 
And our giant rivers roll ! 

Such a land, and such alone. 

Should be leader in the van, 
As the nations sweep along 
To fulfil the hopes of man ! ' " 




"five-o'clock tea at the senator's." 



234 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"Well, this is where they have helped to fulfil them — right in Wash- 
ington here," said Uncle Tom, "There is something in association that even 
so practical a people as we Americans take pride in, and these associations 
live here in the national capital. For it is the city that Washington founded 
and Lincoln saved, and in whose halls have spoken or in whose streets have 
walked such historic figures as Adams and Jefferson and Jackson, Mar- 
shall and Clay and Webster, Calhoun and Douglas and Sumner, Davis and 
Phillips, Benton and Greeley, Grant and Lee, Sherman and Johnston and 
Sheridan, Farragut and Porter, Stanton and Seward, Chase, Bancroft, Bay- 
ard, and Blaine. To these vast buildings that we have visited are linked the 
names of famous men whose lives and deeds are part of our nation's history; 
within their walls have worked thousands of men and women, spending lives 
of quiet industry in the business of the nation. In this beautiful city have 
occurred events that have won a fadeless place in the annals of the world, 
and to it, to-day, come people from every part of our broad land, proud to 
be Americans, proud to call so attractive a city ' our ' national capital, proud 
to feel that they and their sons and daughters are and will be citizens of the 
United States of America. This pride, I know, is yours ; but if, with it, you 
will also feel and recognize the duties it demands and the responsibilities it 
entails, you will go back to your homes better boys and girls, better citizens 
of the republic, better Americans. Seeing is believing. You have seen for 
yourselves ; now, believe for yourselves, and not because I say so, that upon 
you depend the future of your native land and the success of America's ex- 
periment in free government. Come, let us go to the hotel and pack up. We 
take the morning train. To-morrow night you will be telling your adven- 
tures and detailing the wonders you have seen to all the dear ones at home." 

And soon the tourists were struggling with hotel bureau-drawers, and 
puzzling over the problems of trunks and valises — wondering "how under 
the sun Mother did it so easily ! " 




WASHINGTON, FROM THE POTOMAC RIVER. 



CHAPTER XVI 



AMERICA S MARVELS AND AMERICA S STATION 



The same goddess — The dinnei^-party at Jack's home — A new kind of 
game — Material and intellecttial marvels — What patriotism- is — 
Americas growth and station — Good night and good-by. 

ROM goddess to goddess and yet the same goddess! My, 
though ! " exclaimed Jack. " But would n't that just have 
been a riddle for the old puzzle-solvers of Greece and Rome ? " 
"y^dipus and the Sphinx simply would n't have been in 
it, alongside of you. Jack," said Bert. "What is it? Read 
us your riddle, won't you ? " 

"There it stands, that he who runs — or he who rides 
in a Pullman — may read," said Jack. "We left Liberty 
perched on the dome of the Capitol just six hours ago, and 
behold ! here she is, calmly enlightening the world and New 
York harbor to boot." 

Their train had swept across the long reach of the Newark 
Bay, and, parting the low hills on the eastern shore, had 
come into full view of the noble harbor and the metropolis 
flanked by its two broad rivers, 

" That is funny, is n't it !" said Marian. " The goddess of 
liberty was the last thing we saw as we left Washington. She is the first 
thing we see as we reach New York." 

" It beats ' Sheridan's ride ' all hollow," said Jack. " Mrs. Liberty would 
seem to be — what do you call it. Uncle Tom? — ubiquitous." 

" It is a good omen to greet us on our return from Liberty's central of- 
fice, Jack," observed Uncle Tom. " God hasten the day when Hberty shall 
indeed be ubiquitous. For that means — what, Bert?" 
" Existing everywhere," translated Bert. 

Then, as their train ran into the Jersey City station, the tourists gathered 
up their traps, took the ferry-boat across the Hudson, and before long were 




BARTHOLDI'S " LIBERTY." 
(NEW YORK HARBOR.) 



236 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



dispensing kisses and handclasps in dieir own dear homes. Their "tour 
through government" was over. 

The day after their arrival Jack's father and mother gave a dinner-party 
to the "tourists" to fitly celebrate their return. 

It was a jolly affair. All the fathers and mothers were there — even 
Roger's parents coming over from Boston to be at the gathering and hear a 
comparison of notes and experiences. 

A fine dinner w^as served — " It really, Mother, compares favorably, don't 
you know, with our hotel menu,'' pronounced Jack, patronizingly, as one who 
had become quite a critic in gastronomy. There were toasts and speeches, 
in which latter Jack extended the thanks of the "tourists" to their "' guide, 
philosopher, and friend " Uncle Tom Dunlap, for his excellence, his eloquence. 



■ i i.j B »j ly .» «ihMh...~. 





NEW YORK HARBOR. 



and his erudition — that last word came hard, but emphatically — as the con- 
ductor of the party. He also, "on behalf of his colleagues," made acknow- 
ledgment for favors to the several Secretaries of the Treasury (otherwise 



AMERICAS MARVELS AND AMERICAS STATION 



237 



the fathers) who had made the expedition possible, and to the Secretaries of 
the Interior (otherwise the mothers) who had so well stocked the tourists, as 
he expressed it, with suitable equipments and acres of good advice. 



^^H 



THE BROOKLYN 
BRIDGE. 




After a round of patriotic 
sones in the music-room — from 
the " Star- Spangled Banner" and 
''Yankee Doodle" to the "Battle Hymn 
of the Republic" and "America" — the party 
settled down in Mr. Dunlap's pleasant library 

to talk over their experiences; — as if they had done anything else since 
their return ! 

How those five tongues clattered! — six, in fact, for Uncle Tom was as 
talkative as his tourists, — while the fathers and mothers listened and laughed, 
applauded and criticized, and concluded that they had done a wise and prac- 
tical thing when they allowed their boys and girls to make that personally 
conducted trip to Washington. 

" I am glad to notice one thing," said Mr, Dunlap ; " the trip has really 
educated the taste for Intelligent investigation so well begun by some of you 
at the World's Fair at Chicago. Uncle Tom has surely proved himself the 
prince of cicerones — who knows what that is ? " 

"A fellow who Ciceroes, I suppose," said Jack. "That is, one who 
spouts well, is n't it ? " 

"Why, Uncle Tom did n't spout so much," Marian declared. "When 



238 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



he had anything to say, he said it — and in such a way that we understood 
all about what he was trying to show us or teach us." 

"Well, Cicero did that, did n't he?" said Bert. "I suppose that, as 
Jack suggested, cicerone did really come from Cicero and means — a man 
who knows it all and knows just how to tell it." 




" That 's about it, Bert," said Mr. Dunlap. " I only wish Uncle Tom 
could show you over the whole country in the same way he helped you 'do' 
Washington," 

"Oh, how delightful that would be. would n't it? " cried Christine. 

" Oh, can't you. Uncle Tom ? " came the inquiry in chorus. 

" Can't do it, fellow-citizens; Economy is the duty of the hour," said Un- 
cle Tom. " We 've got to pay the National Debt, you know^" 

" But would n't such a trip put just so much money into circulation and 
help pay the Debt ? " asked Bert. 

"Well, my young social economist, it might," replied Uncle Tom. "To 
trot you all over the country would be a big contract, though. And yet I 
suppose it could be done — with so bright a lot of boys and girls, and 
such capital travelers as I took to W^ashington." 

"Just think what a lot of things and places there are to see in America," 



AMERICA S MARVELS AND AMERICA S STATION 



239 



said Roger. " The trouble would be, I suppose, to pick out just where to 
go and just what to see." 

"Yes," answered Mr. Dunlap ; "America has many marvels — alike of 
man's invention and God's handiwork." 

"And all of them would interest us?" asked Marian. 

" Surely, my dear," her father replied. " Under proper direction you 
would, I am certain, get just as much entertainment and instruction from 
the Brooklyn Bridge, the Eads Jetties at New Orleans, the Pennsylvania 
oil and coal mining industries, and the lofty Masonic Temple at Chicago, as 
from the Great Geysers, Niagara Falls, or the Yosemite Valley." 

"Well, almost every section of our country has some marvel to show — 
some wonder of creation or some freak of nature," Uncle Tom remarked. 
" I remember how greatly I enjoyed my trip through the Mammoth Cave of 
Kentucky, with its domes and chasms, its sunless lakes and its eyeless fish, 
its subterranean river and its crystal grottoes that make one keep repeating 
those opening lines of one of Coleridge's poems : 



' In Xanadu did Kubla Khan 
A stately pleasure-dome decree, 
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran, 
Through caverns measureless to man, 
Down to a sunless sea.' " 

" Br-r-r ! " cried Jack; "don't that 
sound nice and spooky ? " 

" Oh, would n't I like to see it ! " 
exclaimed Marian. 

"Which? Xanadu or Mammoth 
Cave ? " queried Bert. 

"Oh, home sights are best — es- 
pecially the eyeless fish," said Marian. 
" Besides, Uncle Tom would show me 
Mammoth Cave, and I 'm not acquainted 
with Mr. Kubla Khan — whoever he 
may be." 

" Bayard Taylor declared the Mammoth Cave to be the greatest natural 
curiosity he ever visited," remarked Mr. Dunlap; "but there are others in 
America equally marvelous. I don't know which was the greater revelation 
to me — Niagara Falls or the Mountain of the Holy Cross in Colorado — the 
one with its torrent of water, the other with its great snow-filled ravines 
armed and glittering in the sun like Constantine's vision of the Cross. But 




EGYPTIAN TEMPLE, MAMMOTH CAVE. 



240 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



do you know, boys and girls, that Niagara, instead of making me feel small 
and insignificant beside its rush of water, always sets me to thinking, as Shak- 
spere puts it, ' how wonderful a thing is man'; for, he can control the mighti- 
est forces of nature and by brain 
and hand drive even such a re- 
sistless cataract as Niagara in 
harness, to work his will and give 
employment to his fellow-men." 

" That 's it," cried Uncle Tom. 
" Man, after all, is the mightiest 
of nature's forces ; think how 
American ingenuity has tunneled 
our mountains, spanned our 
chasms, bridged our rivers, and 
made what seemed obstacles and 
hindrances only so many helps 
and instruments toward union, 
growth, and progress. Why, I 
believe that for every natural 
marvel that you can point out in 
America, I could give you an in- 
tellectual one quite as great." 

" Such comparisons are not 
always easy," said Mr. Dunlap, 
"and I think I could set you a 
task. America is a wonderland." 
" I know it — and in every sense of the word," said Uncle Tom. "That 
is why I propose the test." 

" Oh, what fun ! " cried Marian ; "do try it. Papa." 

" Well," said her father, " let us see. I '11 give you, first, our giant peaks 
— such as St. Elias and Wrangell in Alaska, Tacoma (or Rainier) in Wash- 
ington, Shasta in California and Pike's Peak in Colorado, beside which even 
the Alps have to stand tiptoe to touch shoulders, and the White Mountains 
and the Catskills are but foot-hills." 

"Good, father! Now, Uncle Tom!" cried Jack — just as if, so said 
Marian, he was "setting them on." 

" I '11 match those cloud-capped summits," replied Uncle Tom, "with the 
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States — the 
highest points ever attained by man in human freedom and civil liberty." 
" That 's good ! " cried Bert ; and " Matched him there ! " exclaimed Jack. 




THE STVX, MAMMOTH CAVE. 



AMERICAS MARVELS AND AMERICAS STATION 



241 



" Go on, Papa," prompted Marian. 

''The Mammoth Cave," said her father, "a perfect marvel of darkness 
and devious underground turnings." 

" The Emancipation Proclamation," responded Uncle Tom, "a perfect 
marvel of light and a flashing highway toward liberty." 

"That was Slavery's 
mammoth cave, was n't 
it? " chuckled Jack; " she 
just slumped right in af- 
ter that." 

" More," cried Marian. 

" Niagara Falls," said 
Mr. Dunlap, " the world's 
g-reatest cataract." 

" The telegraph and 
the telephone," retorted 
Uncle Tom, "which act 
quicker than Niagara and 
save time where that 
wastes water." 

" The Yellowstone 
Park," came Mr. Dunlap's 
next offer, " a museum as 
big as the State of Con- 
necticut and packed full 
of wonders." 

"The sewing-machine, 
smaller than a trunk, but 
capable of wonders in the 
way of work," returned 
Uncle Tom. 

"The Great Lakes," 
said Mr. Dunlap, "one 
fourth of all the fresh wa- 
ter on the globe bunched 
together in the heart of a 
continent." 

"Ericsson's Monitor," Uncle Tom responded, "a little cheese-box on a 
raft, that turned the world's wooden navies into iron ones, and gave America 
the fastest armored cruisers in the world." 




EL CAPITAN, YOSEMITE VALLEV. 



242 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



" Hurrah for you. Uncle Tom ; you get there every time ! " cried Jack, 
while the others were roused to enthusiasm over this new eame. 

"The Mississippi River," said Mr. Dunlap, "one of the mig-htiest of the 
world's waterways." 




CATHEDRAL ROCKS, YOSEMITE VALLEY — 2660 FEET HIGH. 



"The Pacific Railway," returned Uncle Tom, "the world's longest and 
speediest highway." 

"The Yosemite Valley — a marvelous mile-long chasm, unequaled in 
the world," said Mr. Dunlap. 

"Our public-school system, that bridges the deepest chasms of ignorance 
and floods with sunlight the darkest caverns of crime." 

" I 'm afraid you '11 get the booby prize, Papa; Uncle Tom 's too much 
for you," Marian said. 

" Just see what an effect our society has had upon him," observed Jack. 
" He 's as up-and-coming as one o'clock." 

" I see he has n't been able to put the brakes on your reckless language, 
Jack, my boy," said Mr. Dunlap; " I had hoped that the task of studying 
government would have rather sobered your slang into sense ; but I am 
afraid it will take a special proclamation, martial law, and the riot act to 
bring your tongue into harness." 



AMERICAS MARVELS AND AMERICAS STATION 



243 



" Therein, I suppose, he does but display his Americanism," remarked 
Uncle Tom. " Slang, extravagance in talk, recklessness in speculation, and 
a tendency to rush to extremes, alike in effort and action, are, it seems to 
me, the things that need the brake here in America, and too often, I think, 
we rather pride ourselves upon them as native American qualities, and 
falsely call them patriotism." 

*' You are right there, Tom," his brother assented. " I would like to set 
these young people, who are now so full of the national glory, on the right 
track toward real pa- 
triotism and true 
Americanism." 

"Why, father!" 
Jack exclaimed, "are 
n't we patriotic ? 
Did n't you hear us 
sing 'America,' just 
now : 

" That 's just it, 
Jack," said his fa- 
ther ; " we sing and 
shout and wave our 
hats and think we've 
done it all. But that 
is n't patriotism. Pa- 
triotism does n't con- 
sist in making the 
eagle scream, in 
flaunting flags and 
raising a great hul- 
labaloo on holidays. 
Bragging and boast- 
ing are not patriot- 
ism ; even eloquence 
is not patriotism any 
more than are mere 
promises of devotion 
or avowals of love 
and affection for the 

Union and the flag. Patriotism is performance. It is to do when it costs to 
do, to assert when plain speaking is dangerous, to stand firm when yielding 




SHOOTING AN OIL-WELL. 




WITHIN THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO. 



AMERICAS MARVELS AND AMERICAS STATION 245 

would be so much easier ; it is doing- one's duty always. Patriotism is love 
of country put to a practical end. It is to do our best for our land in what- 
ever direction effort may lie. This alike the lowest and the highest in the 
land can do, from street-sweeper to President. Patriotism is action ; pa- 
triotism is thought; patriotism is life. So think and act and live that you 
may be real patriots and therefore true Americans." 

** After what we saw in Washington," said Bert, " it would seem to me 
we could not help being true Americans." 

" You certainly have a country worthy your love and loyalty," said Mr. 
Dunlap. " I said boasting was not patriotism ; but even boasting is better 
than the criticism which is forever unfavorably comparing America with 
Europe and which, as I heard Senator Lodge once say, ' looks scornfully on 
the Sierras because they are not the Alps.' " 

"Those are the fellows who try my patience, too," said Uncle Tom. 
" Sometimes I think we do not estimate our country highly enough. Indif- 
ference is the bog in which, too often, we flounder and sink. In fact, I should 
like to establish in our colleges a professorship of enthusiasm to teach young 
men and women to be energetic Americans. And the first lesson in the 
course of study should be to learn by heart, and recite standing beneath the 
flag, that sonnet of Professor Woodberry's. You know it. Jack. I suggested 
it to you for your Washington's Birthday exercises at school." 

"What, do you mean ' Our First Century,' Uncle Tom? Oh, yes, I re- 
member it." And Jack, always ready to * elocute,' recited that spur to patri- 
otism, Woodberry's noble sonnet : 

" It cannot be that men who are the seed 

Of Washington should miss fame's true applause; 

Franklin did plan us; Marshall gave us laws; 
And slow the broad scroll grew a people's creed — 
One land and free ! Thus, at our dangerous need, 

Time's challenge coming, Lincoln gave it pause, 

Upheld the double pillars of the cause 
And, dying, left them whole — our crowning deed. 

Such was the fathering race that made all fast. 

Who founded us, and spread from sea to sea 

A thousand leagues the zone of liberty, 
And built for man this refuge from his past — 

Unkinged, unchurched, unsoldiered ; shamed were we. 

Failing the stature that such sires forecast ! " 

*'* Unkinged, unchurched, unsoldiered' — that 's great, is n't it?" cried 
Roger. 



246 



THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



"That 's the highest kind of freedom, is n't it ? " said Bert, '' and that is 

America ! " 

"Why should n't we grow up to the stature our sires forecast?" de- 
manded Jack. " Nothing is too big a contract for true Americans." 

" I told you that there was enough 
in our history to create enthusiasm," 
said Uncle Tom. "And you have 
the spirit in you, I know from ex- 
perience. Just see what is America's 
station in the world to-day. When 
this century opened, the United 
States had but a little more than 
five millions of inhabitants ; to-day 
they number sixty-seven millions. 
Our possessions, then, extended only 
from Maine to Georgia and from the 
Atlantic to the banks of the Missis- 
sippi; westward, beyond the great 
river, all was unexplored and almost 
unknown. The total area of the 
United States in 1800 was less than 
eight hundred and fifty thousand 
square miles ; to-day the great Re- 
public incloses an area of more than 
three and a half million square miles ; 
her helmet-top is white with Arctic snows ; upon her sandals break the warm 
ripples of the tropic seas. The unexplored region of 1800 has been carved 
into great and growing States. Our original thirteen to-day are forty-five ; 
we lead the world in many departments of production and trade, of intelli- 
gence and ingenuity, in natural advantages, in freedom, in energy, and in 
ability to do. Within one hundred years of life we have first conquered 
and then saved a continent and added to the world's hero-roll the names 
of Washington and Lincoln." 

" What shall we do in the next hundred years, I wonder?" queried Bert. 
" Think how much, boys and girls, the answer to Bert's question depends 
upon you," Mr. Dunlap said. "The future of America is in your hands. 
To-day there are in this Republic twenty million boys and girls. They are 
to be the citizens of the new America in the new century fast coming on. If 
they will but study aright the lesson of liberty and know that it can be held 
only at the price of eternal vigilance, all will be well. Since 1820 eighteen 




ONE OF CHICAGO S TALL BUILDINGS — THE WOMAN S TEMPLE. 




THE WAY TO THE SUMMIT OF FIKe's PEAK, 



248 



THE SyORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 



millions of foreigners have found a home in these United States. Millions 
more will come. They bring hard problems for us to solve, but we can solve 
them — you will solve them, boys and girls, if you will but teach those new- 
comers, by your lives and actions, the real meaning of liberty, and show 




GREAT SHOSHONE FALLS. 



them that the very spirit of unrest they bring and which fills the world to- 
day is really the best possible groundpoint from which liberty can work, if 
her sons will but recognize the truth and grandeur of the Golden Rule." 

The party broke up at last. But, as they separated, Uncle Tom asked 
for a final statement by each of the tourists as to what had most impressed 
him or her at Washinofton. 

The answers were as varied as their natures. Roger replied unhesitat- 
ingly : the Capitol and the hundred thousand dollars he held for a second 



AMERICA S MARVELS AND AMERICA S STATION 



249 



in the Treasury vaults. Marian declared the Washington Monument and 
the phantom eyes that glowered at her above the glass panels of the 
White House doors. Bert picked out the Supreme Court and the cease- 
less purr of the cable on Pennsylvania Avenue, and Jack decided for the 
President and the glee club of the musical herdic-drivers in Lafayette Park. 

As for Christine, she hesitated. Then she said, " Why, Uncle Tom — 
oh, excuse me, I mean Mr. Dunlap — " 

"That 's all right, Christine," laughed Uncle Tom; "I 'm glad you 
have admitted me to relationship at last." 

"I suppose I should say," continued Christine, "everything impressed 
me. Everything did. But, do you know, I think I shall remember, as long- 
as I live, the bird's nest in Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon." 

"A bird's nest? " queried Mr. Dunlap. 

" Yes, sir," Christine explained. " It was built right across a corner of 
the old tablet just above Washington's sarcophagus. There were four little 
birds in it, and the straws of the nest trailed over the inscription : ' lam the 
resurrection and the life.' I don't believe I shall ever forget that. It gave 
me such a queer feeling — almost as if it were a prophecy." 

" It was," said Uncle Tom. "Out of the ashes of the great may spring 
new life and effort. And the wings of a young bird — they mean growth in 
freedom! Do not forget your bird's nest, my dear. It may serve as an ex- 
cellent text for your life as a true American woman." 

Then, amid a chorus of good nights and good-bys, the tourists separated. 
Their personally conducted trip was at an end. But its good times, its 
sights, its experiences, and its lessons remain with them as pleasant and en- 
during memories, cementing friendships and making our girls and boys, as 
time goes on, the very best kind of American citizens. 




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